Classification of volatile products evolved during temperature-programmed co-pyrolysis of Turkish oil shales with low density polyethylene

Abstract

Temperature programmed co-pyrolysis of Turkish oil shales with LDPE was investigated. The aim of this research was to determine the volatile product distribution and product evolution rate of coprocessing of oil shale with LDPE. A series co-pyrolysis operation was performed with oil shale and LDPE using a 1:3, 1:1, 3:1 total carbon ratio of oil shale to plastic. A fixed bed reactor was used to pyrolyse small sample of oil shale and LDPE mixture under an inert gas flow (Argon). A special sampling technique was used for collecting organic products eluted from the reactor at different temperature and time intervals. The co-pyrolysis products were analyzed by capillary gas chromatography and the total product evolution rate was investigated as a function of temperature and time. n-Paraffins and 1-olefins in aliphatic fraction of pyrolysis products were classified as a carbon number. In addition, the recovery of total organic carbon as a organic volatile products was determined. The assessments were based on incorporating the results on temperature-programmed pyrolysis of oil shale1,2 and LDPE. The effect of coprocessing of oil shale with LDPE was determined by calculating the difference between the experimental and the hypothetical mean value of conversion of total organic carbon into volatile products. The effect of kerogen type of oil shale on co-pyrolysis operation was also investigated. Conversion into volatile hydrocarbons was found lower with increasing LDPE ratio in oil shale-LDPE system while C16+ hydrocarbons and the amount of coke deposit were higher in the presence of LDPE.