Sadid Morshed / Chemistry & Biochemistry / Faculty Mentor: Kevin A. Schug
There is active research to seek alternative energy sources with the goal of reducing earthwide dependency on traditional fuels. Producing oil through the pyrolysis of plastic waste is seen as a viable and promising approach for future fuel and chemical feedstock generation. Plastic waste can be transformed into oils by heating the plastic at a very high temperature without oxygen, a process called pyrolysis. In the further processing of pyrolysis oils, heteroatoms can reduce efficiency, so heteroatom content must be well understood
Three techniques were used to examine the polar molecules in plastic waste pyrolysis oil. Stainless steel-coated blades with a coating were introduced to the sample to absorb the polar molecules. The blades were then inserted into different solvents to test the efficacy of desorption. Liquid-liquid extraction using polar solvents was also used to isolate the polar constituents. Finally, an experimental aerogel was evaluated and treated similarly to solid phase extraction.
The extractions were analyzed using supercritical fluid chromatography and gas chromatography. Larger and more polar compounds were isolated using these extraction techniques. Future analysis will lead to identifying and quantifying these compounds in the pyrolysis oil.
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