Catalytic cracking of polypropylene by using Fe-SBA-15 synthesized in an acid-free medium for production of light hydrocarbon oils

•The catalytic cracking of PP using Fe-SBA-15 as catalyst for production of light hydrocarbon oils.•A new synthesis method was used to synthesize Fe-SBA-15 from the acid produced by Fe ion hydrolysis.•The catalyst in this study has good stability and can be reused many times. Catalytic cracking recovery of polyolefins is a research hotspot at present. The addition of catalyst also increases the operation cost. So, the product selectivity and stability of catalysts are very important. In this paper, the synthesis and properties of ordered mesoporous Fe-SBA-15and their applications in PP catalytic cracking have been studied. The ordered mesoporous Fe-SBA-15 has been successfully synthesized by the acidity of Fe ion hydrolysis. The specific surface area of synthesized Fe-SBA-15 was between 890 and 750 m2/g, and the average pore size was 8−10 nm. With the increase of Fe/Si ratio, the acid content of the strong acid sites of Fe-SBA-15 also increases, and the acid content of weak acid sites increases first and then decreases. Fe-SBA-15has strong catalytic cracking properties and good cyclic performance. Compared with thermal cracking, the catalytic cracking of PP can shorten the heating time, decrease the solid and gas product. With the increase of Fe/Si ratio, the catalytic activity also increases. Moreover, the cyclic performance test of the catalyst is carried out by Fe-SBA-15 with Fe/Si ratio of 0.15andthe results indicate that it has strong cycle stability.