Thermal and Catalytic Degradation of Polystyrene with a Novel Catalyst

Abstract

Waste polymer recycling has received a great attention due to increasing amounts of waste polymers generate enormous environmental problems. The pyrolysis of polystyrene was examined as an effective way to recycle this polymer and recover its monomer styrene. In this paper, thermal and catalytic degradation of polystyrene at the atmospheric pressure was investigated. Various conditions of temperature and catalyst/Polystyrene mass ratio were considered to determine the product composition and effects of catalyst/ Polystyrene mass ratio and temperature on conversion. The results showed that with increasing the temperature, the conversion increased. The products of the degradation mostly consist of liquid, less gas and solid residue. The AIT100s catalyst showed good catalytic performance for the degradation of PS with selectivity to aromatics more than 99%.

Keywords— Catalytic degradation, polystyrene, monomer, AIT100s