Recycling of fibre-reinforced polymeric waste by pyrolysis: thermo-gravimetric and bench-scale investigations

Abstract

A variety of composite wastes were pyrolysed in a bench-scale, static-bed reactor at 350–800 °C. The samples under investigation included composites of polyesters, phenolic and epoxy resins, and polypropylene, reinforced with glass and/or carbon fibre. Both the product mass balance and gas composition were dependent on the polymer matrix, pyrolysis temperature and, at the higher temperatures studied, the decomposition of thermally unstable fillers present in several samples, most notably calcium carbonate. The waste samples were also pyrolysed in a thermo-gravimetric analyser and the Arrhenius kinetic parameters of the main decomposition reactions were calculated using a non-isothermal method. The thermograms are discussed in relation to the results of the bench-scale work and related to the decomposition behaviour of individual sample components.