Abstract
The increased demand for energy sources is the driving force to convert organic compounds into alternative fuels. Plastic waste disposal affects the environment, since they are not easily recycled and, during the recycling process, they can produce waste ash, heavy metals, or potentially harmful gas emissions. In the plant design for plastic converting into fuel, the chemical reactor is one of the advanced equipment in the field of chemical and process engineering. This study emphasizes the feasibility of pyrolysis process for valorisation plastics by producing energy-efficient products. In this respect, samples of polypropylene, polyethylene and polystyrene were used as models and subjected to pyrolysis processes at 450 �C, in the presence of two types of mesoporous silica materials, MCM-41 and SBA-15, using a modern developed reactor. The use of mesoporous materials increased the calorific value of the obtained oil and gas, thus improving the economic potential of the process end products. This study dealt with the extraction of oil from plastics termed as plastic pyrolysis oil (PPO) and plastics pyrolysis gas (PPG), with a composition rich in different types of hydrocarbons and they can be marketed at much cheaper rates compared to that present in the market.
Highlights
The increased demand for energy sources is the driving force to convert organic compounds into alternative fuels
As a further step in our research related to the disposal by valorisation of specific wastes [15, 16], this study aimed to investigate the thermochemical effect, the basis of a pyrolysis process, applied to several types of polymeric materials, the polyethylene (PE – high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE)), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS), responsible for more than 90% of plastic products and wastes in Romania
In a previous study [16] we have shown data related with the pyrolysis processes of catalysts directly mixed with plastic wastes
Summary
The increased demand for energy sources is the driving force to convert organic compounds into alternative fuels. This study emphasizes the feasibility of pyrolysis process for valorisation plastics by producing energy-efficient products In this respect, samples of polypropylene, polyethylene and polystyrene were used as models and subjected to pyrolysis processes at 450 °C, in the presence of two types of mesoporous silica materials, MCM-41 and SBA-15, using a modern developed reactor. Recent research works have been focused on the possibility of polystyrene wastes disposal through energetic gain, without using catalysts, by pyrolysis at different temperatures [5] Another experiment was based on low- and high-density polyethylene (LDPE and HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) converted into liquid fuel by slow pyrolysis at low temperatures (from 300 °C to 400 °C), long isothermal holding time, in a semi-batch reactor [6]. A study on disposal of some polyethylene wastes highlighted the combination of a fixed bed reactor and catalysts (zeolites) as an effective solution
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