Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences
Title : | Chemical recycling of plastic waste to valuable liquid fuels using novel functional bimetal/biomass-carbon catalysts |
Area of research : | Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Giridhar M, Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad, Telangana |
Timeline Start Year : | 2024 |
Timeline End Year : | 2027 |
Contact info : | giridhar@che.iith.ac.in |
Equipments : | GC (TCD and FID detectors) with autosampler
High Pressure Stirred Reactor System
Rotavapour
Tubular furnace with a max operational temperature of 1200 oC |
Details
Executive Summary : | The project aims to develop new multifunctional heterogeneous catalysts for recycling polyolefin plastic waste into liquid fuels like petrol, diesel, or jet fuel. India generates significant amounts of plastic and biomass waste daily, and recycling these wastes is crucial for a sustainable future. Recent advances in heterogeneous catalysis have provided efficient routes to develop functional carbon materials from biomass waste, including the plastic waste-to-fuel process. Polyolefins, the major contributors to plastic waste, are challenging to recycle due to their strong carbon-carbon bonds and rigid structure. However, a robust bifunctional catalyst with optimum acid-redox sites can promote polyolefin waste-to-fuel conversion. The proposed catalyst design strategy consists of non-noble metal nanoparticles (Co, Fe, Cu, or Ni) and nanosized metal oxides (Nb2O5, TiO2, and CeO2) encapsulated in the porous structure of biomass waste-derived carbon material. The nanosized metal oxides contain abundant acid sites that selectively cleave polyolefin into active intermediates, while the redox properties of the metal nanoparticles accelerate hydrogen spillover and hydrogenation towards liquid fuels. The porous structure of biomass-derived carbon can inhibit catalyst deactivation and enhance the diffusion of reagents/intermediates, achieving promising results in the polyolefin waste-to-fuel process.
The project's primary goals include precise control of the porous structure of biomass-derived carbon and particle size of metals and oxides to obtain sufficient acid-redox sites for the polyolefin waste-to-fuel process. A thorough study of acid-redox, porosity, particle size, and surface chemistry will be conducted using various analytical techniques. |
Co-PI: | Dr. Sudarsanam Putla, Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad, Telangana-502284 |
Total Budget (INR): | 58,83,460 |
Organizations involved