Carbon neutral (or negative) fuels obtained from plastics and waste biomass pyrolysis act as alternatives to fossil fuels. CCL is currently working to generate and upgrade pyrolysis oil and waxes, also referred to as renewable/recyclable crude oil (RCO), from a wide variety of waste materials. This research work is in collaboration with industries that are in the forefront of pyrolysis technologies. This research aims to (a.) understand the pyrolysis yields and hydrocarbon spectrum of a wide variety of mixed or segregated feedstock, and (b.) investigate the catalytic upgrading of RCO in fluidized catalytic cracking units. The implications of RCO feed in FCC units are dictated by designing novel catalysts capable of handling a wide range of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. The FCC unit has been central to refineries for its ability to tolerate variability in feedstock properties for the last 70 years, to generate fuels and chemicals.
Related publications:
- Investigations into the Catalytic Cracking of Pyrolysis Oil Obtained from Plastic Wastes;
Snehesh Shivananda Ail, Golam Chowdhury, Marco J. Castaldi, Lucas Dorazio, Jian Shi, James Fu, and C.P. Kelkar;
The 27th North American Catalysis Society Meeting, New York, New York;2022 - Processing renewable and waste-based feedstocks with fluid catalytic cracking: Impact on catalytic performance and considerations for improved catalyst design.
Mastry, Melissa Clough, Lucas Dorazio, James C. Fu, Juan Pedro Gómez, Sergio Sedano, Snehesh Shivananda Ail, Marco J. Castaldi, and Bilge Yilmaz.
Frontiers in Chemistry 11 (2023): 1067488.