Noble metal-free tandem catalysis enables efficient upcycling plastic waste into liquid fuel components

Noble metal-free tandem catalyst based on Ni-WO3/Al2O3 and Beta zeolite was developed for consecutive hydrocracking polyolefin wastes, enabling efficient production of primarily gasoline-jet ranged hydrocarbons at a yield of 86.2% that rivals the state-of-the-art noble metal catalysts. [Display omitted] •Tandem catalysis bridges the huge size gap between polyolefin and zeolite pores.•The introduction of W enhances acidity and constructs a tandem catalytic route.•Hydrocracking PE yields over 86% highly branched gasoline-jet ranged alkanes.•Ni-WO3/Al2O3 and Beta rivals noble metal catalysts in liquid fuel formation rate.•The catalyst maintains excellent stability over 5 recycling runs. The lack of effective approaches for upcycling waste plastic has led to severe environmental pollution and squandering of carbon resources. While hydrocracking macromolecular polyolefins over typical metal-zeolite catalyst produces high quality liquid fuel components, the limited activity of base metal and restricted accessibility of acid sites within microporous zeolite renders this process still not in practical scale. A tandem catalyst comprising Ni-WO3/Al2O3 and Beta zeolite was developed for consecutive hydrocracking polyolefins, achieving a yield of 86.2 % of primarily gasoline-jet ranged hydrocarbons (mainly C5-C16 and minor C16+) at 280 °C. The incorporation of tungsten species onto Ni/Al2O3 largely enhances the surface acidity and accelerates the primary cracking process that converts polyethylene (PE) into medium-sized intermediates, which would readily diffuse into the pore networks of Beta and undergo further cracking to yield desired liquid hydrocarbons. In addition, this tandem catalyst also promotes facile hydrocracking of consumer-grade plastic waste and maintains excellent stability over 5 recycling tests. The noble-metal-free catalyst achieves an impressive liquid formation rate of 5.74 g·gcat.−1·h−1, rivaling the noble metal-based catalyst and demonstrating high application prospects.