Abstract
The vast application of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) in packaging, greenhouses, homes etc has led to its huge accumulation as a municipal solid waste with monumental health, economic and environmental consequences. Since these are non-biodegradable and their photodegradation occurs only over a very long period, their economic conversion to energy products through pyrolysis is the thrust of this study. LDPE sample collected from the University of Ilorin Community was thermally degraded in a pyrolyser at temperatures ranging from 203 – 400 oC. The products of pyrolysis were in three (3) states of matter and both the liquid and solid products were analysed using FTIR to determine the functional groups and GC- MS for the hydrocarbons present in the products. For the GC-MS analysis, the peaks that had 90% above quality when compared with the compounds in the installed NIST11 library were reported. There were alkanes, alkenes, halogenated alkanes, and very few aromatics in the liquid product and, the hydrocarbons were observed to range between C10 - C27. The FTIR and GC-MS results show the potential of the oil obtained as renewable source of energy while that for residue shows its inherent energy content. The liquid product was refluxed over molecular sieve catalyst (US 2882244A) and the calorific value was found to increase from 13,974 kJ/kg to 15,815.52 kJ/kg and this is found to be comparable to the range for lignite and dry wood. Key words: environmental pollution, solid wastes, LDPE, pyrolysis, hydrocarbons, Calorific value.
Highlights
Plastic constitutes a major component of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) because of its intensive use and applications in household, packaging, agricultural, automotive and building construction due to their lightweight characteristics, high chemical stability and low degradability (Ratnasari et a l., 2016; Miandad, et al, 2016)
In Nigeria, MSW are disposed indiscriminately and because of the non - biodegradable nature of the plastic wastes, it has resulted in their accumulation and sometimes these get washed into drainages and lead to flooding during rains (Ademiluyi and Akpan, 2007)
Minimize the negative environmental impact of improper disposal of plastic wastes. These Feedstock of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) of 3.8 kg weight was thermal methods account for less than 10% of plastic wastes degraded in the pyrolyser at a temperature ranging disposed and are characterized by other economic from 203 to 400oC and a resident time of 60 minutes and health challenges (Syamsiro et al, 2014) .The when the first drop of liquid was observed to the last need to find a solution to the problems arising from drop
Summary
Plastic constitutes a major component of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) because of its intensive use and applications in household, packaging, agricultural, automotive and building construction due to their lightweight characteristics, high chemical stability and low degradability (Ratnasari et a l., 2016; Miandad, et al, 2016). Plastic wastes are considered as a potentially economic source of chemicals and energy that could be used after its initial useful life has expired since it is derived from petroleum products (UNEP, 2009). This new research drive is in response to the increased search for alternatives that will be cheaper, but will be environment friendly and satisfy the energy need of man because of the depletion of conventional sources of energy. Pyrolysis involves the breakdown of the plastics into more useful products under controlled conditions of temperature, air with or without catalysts (Das and Pandey, 2007) It is a thermo – chemical degradation reaction and results in the production of oil, gas and waxes (Miskolczi et al, 2006)
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