Waste to energy: An experimental study of utilizing the agricultural residue, MSW, and e-waste available in Bangladesh for pyrolysis conversion

Abstract

The paper aims to study different aspects of liquid fuel production through pyrolysis from agricultural residues, MSW, and e-waste available in Bangladesh. The abundant production of various crops generates massive amounts of residue such as rice straw, wheat straw, rice husk, jute stick, and sugarcane bagasse in Bangladesh have great potential for liquid fuel production for pyrolysis conversion. Bangladesh produces almost 25,000 tons of solid waste per day from urban areas, and Dhaka city alone contributes to one-quarter of all urban waste in the country. The biomass and waste-derived pyrolysis fuel can be successfully used in turbines, boilers, engines and upgraded to high-quality hydrocarbon transportation fuels through distillation. The concise data obtained from the study is anticipated to provide valuable information regarding the effective utilization of municipal solid waste and agricultural residues by using pyrolysis process so that further detailed work on these resources can pave a pathway towards scientific research and significant energy contribution in Bangladesh. The feasibility study has been conducted through physical properties, proximate analysis, elemental analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis of the selected agricultural residues, municipal solid wastes, and plastic e-wastes for pyrolysis conversion in Bangladesh. It has been found that polythene has a better thermochemical potential than rice straw (13.71 MJ/kg) owing to its high calorific value (46.41 MJ/kg). The foremost volatile matter obtained from plastic waste is 98.1 wt.%, and the minimum from rice husk is 57.19 wt.%. The maximum carbon amount is possessed by plastic waste (84.03 wt.%). The ultimate analysis showed that the MSW sample contains more sulfur content than agricultural residue and e-waste, whereas the case is the opposite in terms of oxygen. Rice husk and tire waste have the highest ash content, i.e., 19.70 and 4.38 (wt.%), respectively, indicating a significant amount of unwanted material. TGA examination of feedstock revealed that the majority of mass loss occurred between 250-450 °C for agricultural residue attributed to the release of volatile materials during the formation of char and the evolution of pyrolysis gases. For MSW samples, the range varies between 350-500 °C, which is the appropriate temperature for optimizing liquid oil production in plastic pyrolysis.