CHAPTER 1 THE PROBLEM

One of the common problems that humanity is facing is the managementof waste. Waste is unwanted or useless materials, it becomes litter if it is are improperly expelled in disposed. the body Even like

unwanted

substances

that

toxins, urine, sweat and stool are considered as waste;and these show that man is accompanied with waste. According to Barbalace (1995) humans are very careless with their

garbage and the emergence in the problem withwasteactually didnt begin at 20th century. The said researcher found out that in 6,500 B.C.,there was an event that Native Americans in Colorado killed 200 buffalos for one day and butchered 150of the animal to feed 150 people for 23 days, which leaved 18,380 pounds of bones. The incidentis can be seen in the timeline that the researcher provided. This debris is just a minute in the total trash dumped by man. As the time goes by, many landfillsand dumpsites were

opened to accommodate the wasteof the increasing humans population. In terms of population density, Philippines

ranked as no. 4 and considered as one of the fast growing

countries.Due integrated

to

the

rising

numberof in

people,

there

were

methods

developed

handling

wastes:

incineration (a process which uses the concept of cracking, gasification, and pyrolysis), recycling, biological

reprocessing (digestion process using the microbes), and energy recovery (uses the concept of gasification,

pyrolysis, and hydrolysis). Among the methods,recycling is considered less beneficial because in the long run when the recycled waste is no longer useful and is no longer

suitable for recycling, the recycled waste will still then be waste and the problem with wastes isnt minimized. In the said methods, recycling and biological reprocessing are the procedures which exist in the Philippines. The poor presence of the techniques led the Philippines as one of the most polluted countries in Asia. The Philippine Brown Environment Quality, a movement

which concerned with the air, water pollution and solid waste management, found out that an average Filipino

generates 0.3 and 0.5 kg. of garbage daily at urban and rural areas, respectively (Senate Economic Planning Office of the Philippines, 2005). Most of the wastes are solids and 15% of these are plastics. Regarding plastics, majority of these were plastic bags and water bottles; mostly, these

are madefrom High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE), and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). Aside from the problem on wastes, the demand,

consumption, and price of petroleum fuels are raising which rapidly depleting the natural reservoirs of fossil. Other aspects also, are of the the fast modernization countries. If and the

industrialization

developing

consumers will still depend on petroleum fuels, sooner or later the non-renewable source will become extinct. Based on these difficulties, the researcher

formulated a study which can solves part of the problem. The study is built to liquefy the selected waste plastics in the form of oil.

Conceptual Framework Plastics are polymers substances. and By most means of of these cracking are and nonthe

biodegradable

concept of depolymerization, the researcher could produce light crudeoil in controlled conditions and varying

reaction time. One of the reasons for the selection of the samples is that polyethylene can be depolymerized giving mostly straight and less branched paraffins and this result was proven from Xiao, Zmierczakbit, &Shabtai(1994) study. But regarding

with

the

different that these

polyethylene plastics

samples, produce

there

is

possibility

will

different

compositions crude oil due to the different orientations and arrangements of the polymers. In the researchers read about polymer degradation, most of the studiesusedhydrocrackingprocess. The conditionsof the

studies used high temperature and pressure system.But the study Catalytic Degradation of High Density Poyethylene and Waste Plastic Below 200 C (Deng, McClennen,

&Meuzelaar, 2010), the researchers able to degrade HDPE at 200 C and under a pressure of 25 psig. Due to these

conditions, the conditions of the current study were built. To inhibit the used of high pressure system and hydrogen, the system of the current studywill be done at sea level pressure and instead of hydrogen,nitrogen will be used;it will not use to pressurize the system but to remove the air to prevent theirregularity of the degradation of polymers especially LDPE (Roy, Surekha, Rajagopal, &Choudhary,

2007). In catalytic degradation, the expected products will be olefins which have a better performance fuel than nparaffinic fuels(University of Western Octario: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, 2010).

Zeolite will be employedas the catalyst in cracking process because it is more effective in inhibiting the use of high temperature to achieve specified conversions, it increases the rate of reaction, it minimizes the coke formation, and it improves catalyst stability. These are the conditions that are formulated and will be used in the current study.

Independent Variable y Three Types of Plastics 1. HDPE 2. LDPE 3. PET  Cracking Conditions o Constant temperature o Constant pressure o Constant catalytic amount o Varying Reaction Time

` Dependent Variable

y Light Crude Oil Production Yield using Gravimetric Method y Light Crude Oil Characterization by Gas Chromatography

Figure 1. Schematic Diagram of the Conceptual Framework of the study Statement of the Problem

The main purpose of this study is to produce light crude oil from selected waste plastics usingcatalytic cracking and the said parameters. The crude oilthat will be produced will be subjected for characterization. On the degradation of plastics, it seeks to answer following questions: 1. What is the amount of light crude oil produced for the following: a.) b.) c.) for HDPE? for LDPE? for PET? the

2. What are the hydrocarbons produced: a.) b.) c.) 3. Is for HDPE? for LDPE? for PET? there a significant difference among the three

waste plastics in terms of yield and characteristics of light crude oil produced?

Hypothesis y There is no significant difference among the three waste plastics in terms of yield and characteristics of gas produced.

Significance of the Study

This study will primarily help the waste management system of Cagayan de Oro City and maybe in the future the entire Philippines. It facilitates also, the petroleum industry, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), the chemistry educators, and general research. The waste management system will be aided by this study due to its capacity to lessen the waste especially polyethylene plastics which is one of the major solid waste in creeks, landfills, and dumpsites. This will be a big help for the petroleum industry, in providing a new source of fuel to supply the increasing demand and consumption of the motorists. It will be of great assistance for DENR because the problem on greenhouse gases will be minimized if theresult gases on the research maybe use as fuel gases. The DOH is also addressed by this study because of the diseases that accompanied by waste like typhoid fever,

hepatitis A and B, cholera, and amoeba from the liquid waste coming from dumpsites into lakes, rivers, and seas. The DOE maybe aided, in providing a new way for solving the crisis in fuel.

DOTC

will

also

be

facilitated

because

it

will

provide a cheaper source of fuel for the consumers. For the chemistry educators, this will serveas useful tool for presenting and providing information about the

chemistry of gas production from plastics. For general researchers, this will be a helpful tool to undergo further research about production of gas from waste plastics and use the knowledge from this study to create a new source of fuel.

Scope and Limitations of the Study The study focuses only on the three waste plastics: HDPE, LDPE, and PET, and only the zeolite catalyst will be

employed in the production of light crude oil. The sampling time will start anytime of the year. The catalytic cracking process will be done on a gasifier. The oil that will be produced on the said process will be identified using a Gas Chromatograph Spectrophotometer. The parameters that will be applied: the temperature will be 300 C, and is constant throughout the experimental period and the same with the amount of catalyst (50% wt/wt) used; and the reaction time will only be varied. The waste plastics will be randomly chosen in any garbage cans, or dumpsites, or landfills in Cagayan de Oro City

since the basis of selection will be based only in minute quantity to produce the necessary amount of products to be tested for the accomplishment of the study.

Definition of Terms Alkanes. Also known as paraffins which are saturated

hydrocarbon

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Catalyst.A

substance

which

alters

the

rate

of

chemical

reaction but is chemically unchanged at the end of the reaction. Characterization. This method used to determine the

different hydrocarbons present in the light crude oil and used as the basis toknow of what type of fuel does the oil represents the most. Catalytic Cracking.A process where large structured alkane is degraded into lighter alkenes in the presence of a\ catalyst and heat. Depolymerization. A method employed to convert polymers

into light crude oil using progressive heating at or greater than 500 Digestion. It is C. the degradation of wastes using

microorganisms to produce valuable products. Gasification.Conversion of carbonaceous material with the presence of heat and water into hydrogen gas and

carbon monoxide. Hydrocarbon. An organic compound composed entirely of

carbon and hydrogen. Hydrolysis. The organic substances are converted into fuel using superheated water. Light Crude Oil. Usually composed of C5-C21 hydrocarbons

that are liquid at normal temperature and pressure.

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Microbes.

These

are

the

smallest

creatures

which

are

responsible for the decomposition of almost all of the organic substances. Polymers. This a large molecule composed of repeating

structural units. Pyrolysis. It is a process which produces volatile

organic compounds and carbon residue from carbonaceous material in the presence of heat.