Thermal catalytic conversion of the used isobutyl isoprene rubber into valuable hydrocarbons

Abstract

An environment friendly method, thermal catalytic pyrolysis of used isobutyl isoprene rubber was investigated. In this method, the used inner butyl tube rubbers were catalytically pyrolyzed into valuable hydrocarbons and carbon black. In this method, the tube rubber was pyrolyzed both thermally (with out catalyst) and catalytically in a batch reactor under atmospheric pressure. The effect of temperature, the amount of catalyst, and the reaction time on the yields of the pyrolyzed products were investigated. Char yield decreased with increase of pyrolysis temperature while total gas and liquid yields increased. The liquid fraction was obtained with boiling point up to 478 K. At optimum conditions, the liquid product was collected and analyzed for different fuel properties. Typical analysis of the used isobutyl isoprene rubber oil for both the cases of parent and refluxed oil has been performed. Phenols and carbonyls were quantitatively determined by spectrophotometric methods using folin-denis and phenyl hydrazine reagents, respectively. The distillation data showed that *100% of oil has boiling point \473 K which is the boiling point for 80% of distilled product in commercial kerosene. Its specific gravity, viscosity, freezing point, Cetane number, and diesel index were also within the limits of kerosene.