Compared study for thermal cracking of polypropylene by composites of nickel oxide and barium oxide with salt

Abstract

Annually, millions of tons of plastic waste enter the environment, causing many environmental
problems, being harmful to animals and humans, and increasing global warming.
Polypropylene is one of the main types of plastic; various materials are made from it, and it
accumulates in the environment after consumption. This work includes the synthesis of nickel
oxide (NiO) nanoparticles and barium oxide (BaO) nanoparticles by a plasma method. We
have confirmed the results by energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), field
emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), UV-visible spectroscopy (UV), and atomic
absorption spectrometry (AAS). We got NiO nanoparticles with a diameter of 40.37 nm and
BaO nanoparticles with a diameter of 45.73 nm. Nanocomposites are prepared with different
concentrations (25.3, 50.6, and 75.9 ppm) of NiO nanoparticles and different concentrations
(25.9, 51.9, and 77.8 ppm) of NiO nanoparticles. We use the distillation process for thermal
cracking of polypropylene by adding different concentrations of nanocomposites (NiO and
BaO) in each experiment. A liquid fuel with physical properties was obtained between diesel
and gasoline at 280 °C and 350 °C for each experiment. The results at 280 °C are better than
at 350 °C in terms of an increase in the size of products, an increase in density and viscosity,
an increase in octane number, especially with 98 at 50.6 ppm for NiO and 97.5 at 51.9 ppm for
BaO; a decrease in the aniline point, and an increase in cetane number, 55.8 and 54.8 for the
same concentrations above. However, due to the high point of its flash and its high content of
fat, it is a fuel similar to the diesel fuel of the summer type (S).