The kinetics of typical medical waste pyrolysis based on gaseous evolution behaviour in a micro-fluidised bed reactor.

Abstract

In order to obtain the kinetic parameters during typical medical waste pyrolysis, the typical medical waste is pyrolysed in a micro-fluidised bed reactor. The gases evolved from the typical medical waste pyrolysis are analysed by a mass spectrometer, and only H2, CH4, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, C3H6, C3H8 and C4H4 are observed. According to the gaseous product concentration profiles, the activation energies of gaseous formation are calculated based on the Friedman approach, and the average activation energies of H2, CH4, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, C3H6, C3H8 and C4H4 formation during typical medical waste pyrolysis are in sequence as 65.10, 39.98, 35.17, 38.71, 40.75, 41.79, 58.57 and 63.95 kJ mol-1. Moreover, the activation energy with respect to the gases mixture formation is 52.70 kJ mol-1. Hence, it is concluded that the activation energy of typical medical waste pyrolysis is 52.70 kJ mol-1. The model-fitting method is used to determine the mechanism model of medical waste pyrolysis. The results indicate that the chemical reaction ( n = 1) model (G(x) = -ln(1-x)) is the optimum.