Hydrogen-rich syngas production by catalytic cracking of polypropylene over activated carbon based monometallic and bimetallic Fe/Ni catalysts

The aim of this study is to efficiently produce hydrogen-rich syngas. The thermal conversion experiment of polypropylene was carried out in a two-stage pyrolytic-catalytic device. Activated carbon based catalyst was developed, the catalytic performance of monomial and bimetallic catalysts was explored, and the influence of metal addition ratio in bimetallic catalysts on hydrogen production performance was analyzed. The microscopic morphology and structural characterization of the unreacted and spent catalyst were analyzed, and the effect of active substance in catalyst on the reaction performance was described. Under optimized reaction conditions, bimetallic catalyst 5Fe–10Ni had excellent catalytic activity, large hydrogen yield (136.32 mmol/g_PP) and high carbon deposition quality. For this high performance catalyst, the catalyst stability was verified by 10 cycles of recycling experiments. The method of hydrogen production from waste plastic cracking in this paper will provide new ideas for high value utilization of plastic and hydrogen production.