Catalytic pyrolysis kinetic behaviour of glass fibre-reinforced epoxy resin composites over ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst

Abstract

The catalytic pyrolysis process is an environmentally friendly technology used to decompose the organic waste into chemical and volatile compounds with high abundance and quality. In the present research, the catalytic pyrolysis treatment was used to decompose the organic fraction of end-of-life glass fibre-reinforced epoxy resin composites (GFRP) over ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst into energy products, thus liberating a fiberglass fraction. The pyrolysis process was performed using thermogravimetry (TGA) with different ZSM-5 to GFRP ratios (w/w; 0.5, 1, 2, 5 wt%) and the generated volatile compounds at ratio were observed using TG-FTIR and GC–MS system. Also, the effect of catalyst concentration on pyrolysis kinetics of GFRP and its activation energies (Ea) was studied using (KAS, FWO, and Friedman) linear isoconversional, (Vyazovkin and Cai) nonlinear isoconversional, the distributed activation energy (DAEM), and the independent parallel reactions (IPR) models. The characteristics of the TGA curves and FTIR spectra were not significantly changed by addition of the catalyst, where the average weight loss was in the ranges 60–64 wt% and aromatic benzene and CO2 the main functional groups in FTIR results. Meanwhile, GC–MS analysis showed that catalyst and heating rates play an important role in the yield of the recovered phenol compound and the highest yield (66%) was obtained at 5 °C/min and ZSM-5 to GFRP ratio = 2 (with increasing 43% compared with virgin GFRP). Based on that, the pyrolysis process supported by ZSM-5 zeolite can be used to recover phenol from GFRP.