Catalytic Pyrolysis of Multilayer Plastics Over Halloysite: Kinetics, Thermodynamics, Fuel Analysis

ABSTRACT Waste multilayer plastics were catalytically pyrolyzed with halloysite clay (HC) to enhance process kinetics, product yield, and product quality. The optimum temperature (450°C) yields 66.92% pyrolysis oil in thermal pyrolysis, which increases to 82.5% upon adding 5% HC. The kinetic analysis shows that the clay catalyst reduced activation energy from 304 kJ mol −1 in thermal pyrolysis (F 1 mechanism) to 267 kJ mol −1 in the catalytic one (F 2 mechanism). The catalyst affected the thermodynamics of degradation, decreasing Δ H (135.698 → 111.603 kJ mol −1 ) and increasing both Δ G (814.939 → 834.948 kJ mol −1 ) and the magnitude of Δ S (−903.846 → −957.755 × 10 −3 kJ K −1 mol −1 ), confirming its efficacy. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) results indicate that the pyrolytic oil is predominantly hydrocarbon‐rich. The use of HC as a catalyst improves the kinetics and thermodynamics of the process, in addition to yield and properties of fuel oil for sustainable waste‐to‐fuel.