Development of an Innovative Thermal Cracking of Mixed-Plastic Waste Without Catalyst as an Alternative Fuel Source

Abstract

The growing consumption of plastic is a major contributor to the substantial increase in waste, emphasizing the urgent need for the adoption of sustainable and effective practices in management and resource reclamation. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the production of pyrolytic distilled oil (PDO) from five types of mixed-plastic waste using pyrolysis and distillation process without catalysts. Pyrolysis was conducted at a temperature range of 300 ? to 450 ? with a fixed heating rate of 10 ?/min for 60 minutes, while distillation was performed at 120 ? to 350 ?. The distilled pyrolytic oil obtained was characterized using analytical techniques with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and Carbon/Hydrogen/Nitrogen (CHN) analyses to determine its chemical content and heating value. The effect of pyrolysis and distillation temperature on product yield and hydrocarbon content was also examined. The results showed that the predominant compounds obtained were aromatic hydrocarbon groups, including styrene, benzene, naphthalene, and xylene. Other compounds included non-aromatic hydrocarbon groups, such as alkane and alkene. In addition, the chemical content was found to be comparable to that of product obtained from the use of common pyrolysis using catalysts. In this study, the heating values observed were in the range of 30.835 – 33.004 MJ/kg. However, the heating value of the product was still low and needed to be improved using another treatment. Comparison with previous reports showed that temperature in this study was not significant to the chemical content and heating value of the obtained distillate oil.

Keywords

• low temperature
• non-catalyst
• plastic waste
• pyrolysis
• pyrolytic oil