Co-pyrolysis of bamboo biomass with polypropylene coverall: Distributed activation energy modeling and pyrolysate composition studies

Abstract

This study evaluates the pyrolysis kinetics and resource recovery potential from mixtures of bamboo sawdust (BS) biomass, and a COVID-19 waste material, body coverall (BC). The pyrolysis kinetics of BS, BC and their binary mixtures was modeled using distributed activation energy modeling approach. BS pyrolysis was described using three pseudocomponents, viz., cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, and BC using two pseudocomponents, polypropylene and an additive. For pyrolysis of individual BS and BC, the activation energy was highest for lignin (272.1 kJ mol−1) and the additive (321.7 kJ mol−1) pseudocomponent. The activation energy (240.7 kJ mol−1) and change in enthalpy (234.9 kJ mol−1) were found to be the lowest for lignin for the blend BS:BC (3:1 wt/wt). Analytical pyrolysis revealed alkenes (63.3%) and oxygen containing aromatics (57.4%) as the major compounds from BC and BS, respectively. Cyclic alcohols were the major compounds from pyrolysis of BS–BC mixtures. This study demonstrates that blending BC with BS lowers the energy barrier for pyrolysis to generate valuable chemicals.