Potential use of waste rubber tires containing polystyrene to produce gasoline-like hydrocarbon by thermal catalytic cracking

Abstract Rubber tire waste from abundant amount of vehicles are naturally unbiodegradable, without proper treatment they shall accumulate uncontrollably. Polystyrene is a synthetic polymer contained in rubber tires and it is usually unrecycled, therefore it needs a further study to recycle polystyrene effectively. In this research, waste tires are used to produce gasoline-like hydrocarbon using thermal catalytic cracking method uses high temperatures and catalysts of NaOH and zeolite. The ratios of zeolite and NaOH are 0:1; 2:3; 1:1; 3:2; 1:0 with waste tire mass of 400 g, the temperature used varies, which are 300°C, 350°C, and 400°C with pyrolysis durations of 1, 2 and 3 hrs. The thermal catalytic cracking method is a simple solution to break the hydrocarbon chains of polystyrene with considerably shorter length of time aided by the catalysts. The highest volume of gasoline-like hydrocarbon produced is 255 ml with 2 hrs pyrolysis at 400°C. The addition of 25% NaOH and 75% zeolite as the catalyst in the process has given the most favorable result in research octane number (RON) that is 113. The maximum point of heating value is 10223.161 cal/g with 3 hrs pyrolysis duration at 400°C temperature.