Microscopic Approaches to Decomposition and Burning Processes of a Micro Plastic Resin Particle under Abrupt Heating

Abstract

To elucidate the possibility and availability of thermal recycling of waste plastic resin from a basic and microscopic viewpoint, a series of abrupt heating processes of a spherical micro plastic particle having a diameter of about 200 μm is observed, when it is abruptly exposed to hot oxidizing combustion gas. Three ingenious devices are introduced and two typical plastic resins of polyethylene terephthalate and polyethylene are used. In this paper the dependency of internal and external appearances of residual plastic embers on the heating time and the ingredients of plastic resins is optically analyzed, along with appearances of internal micro bubbling, multiple micro explosions and jets, and micro diffusion flames during abrupt heating. Based on temporal variations of the surface area of a micro plastic particle, the apparent burning rate constant is also evaluated and compared with those of well-known volatile liquid fuels.

Keywords

• heterogeneous combustion
• visualization technique
• plastic resin particle
• thermal decomposition
• micro bubbling
• micro explosion