Low-temperature pyrolysis of waste rubber

Abstract

Plasma pyrolysis of used tires leads to the distribution of sulfur compounds in gas and char generated during the process. Sulfur transformation and distribution were investigated by analyzing the gas and char at different conditions. Sulfides in the gaseous product were analyzed using photometric method. It was found that hydrogen sulfide was the main compound containing sulfur. The sulfur content in residual char was determined using an elemental analyzer and the sulfur forms in char were characterized by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was found that the sulfur distributed in char was more than 90% of total sulfur and the main sulfur form in char was inorganic sulfide. The results of this series of experiment have shown that the transformation and the distribution of sulfur in the pyrolysis process is basically affected by input power, feed rate, addition of steam, and dolomite absorbent to the process.