Technology for clean electricity and carbon nanotubes production from waste plastics pyrolysis

Profil Titel	Technology for clean electricity and carbon nanotubes production from waste plastics pyrolysis
Referenz	07 IT LAAP 0HVE
Herkunftsland	Italy
Kooperationsart	Angebot
Eintrag/Änderung	2007-05-16 / 2008-04-30
Status	Dieses Profil ist abgelaufen! Falls Sie denoch Interesse haben, kontaktieren Sie uns. (2009-04-30)

Kurzfassung

An Italian university department of chemistry has developed a technology to produce electricity without carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from waste plastics. The technology is based on a patented catalyst and it will be used to generate clean electricity and mass production of multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The research group is looking for industrial/chemical engineering design partner interested to develop firstly a laboratory-scale prototype plant and then to realise/design an industrial plant.

Details

Plastics from urban wastes (WPs) are increasingly abundant, and more than 30% of it cannot be recycled. This large fraction is partially utilised as fuel in thermoelectric plants to produce electricity (in Italy, 575000 ton were burned in 2004 with emission of 1.7 Mton of CO2, roughly.), but a part of it is left in the dumps. Most WPs can be pyrolysed at moderate temperature (around 500 °C) with production of a light hydrocarbon (LHs) mixture and a residue that could be further treated to obtain fuels.
The efficient decomposition of the LHs requires a catalyst. All the catalysts used in the industry are poisoned by carbon in amorphous and/or graphitic state. This results in progressive decrease of the reaction rate, and the catalyst should be regenerated or substituted.

The patented catalyst (CT) developed by the department of chemistry of an Italian university located in Rome is an unsupported catalyst that does not poison, and carbon is 100% in the form of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs).
Therefore, a mixture of LHs from any kind of source or a single LH can be decomposed at constant rate producing MWCNTs and molecular hydrogen (H2) that feeds fuel cells and/or gas turbines for generating electricity.
In this way, electricity is generated without emission of CO2 as it occurs in any thermoelectric plant.

Therefore, the pyrolysis of WPs followed by LHs decomposition using CT would produce a large amount of MWCNTs and electricity through H2.
Such a process at industrial scale would produce a large amount of MWCNTs with consequent decreasing of their cost.

Moreover MWCNTs are a very interesting material for their peculiar physicochemical properties that make them candidates for many advanced applications.
From the quantitative point of view, their use in composite materials is the most relevant application as structural materials in several technological areas (automotive, aerospace, aeronautics, naval, military, sports, etc.).
Their present high market price does not allow widespread applications.

Innovative Aspects:
- Waste plastics are the raw materials of the process.
- Higher energy efficiency of this conversion: the theoretical efficiency of this conversion is 83% and, conservatively, the practical one is 55% (the best overall efficiency of the conventional electricity generation systems is around 35%).
- 1 ton of WPs would produce 1.98 MW/h by the present process.
- The cost of 1 ton of WPs is practically zero.
- Production of Diesel fuel from the pyrolysis residue of this process.
- Production of MWCNTs: those are high-added-value by-products for their peculiar physicochemical properties, which make them candidates for many advanced applications. Their use in composite materials is the most relevant application as structural materials in several technological areas (automotive, aerospace, aeronautics, naval, military, sports, etc.).