Environmental Impact of Pyrolysis of Mixed WEEE Plastics Part 1: Experimental Pyrolysis Data

Abstract

Growth in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is posing increasing problems of waste management, partly resulting from its plastic content. WEEE plastics include a range of polymers, some of which can be sorted and extracted for recycling. However a nonrecyclable fraction remains containing a mixture of polymers contaminated with other materials, and pyrolysis is a potential means of recovering the energy content of this. In preparation for a life cycle assessment of this option, described in part 2 of this paper set, data were collected from trials using experimental pyrolysis equipment representative of a continuous commercial process operated at 800 °C. The feedstock contained acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene and high impact polystyrene with high levels of additives, and dense polymers including polyvinylchloride, polycarbonate, polyphenylene oxide, and polymethyl methacrylate. On average 39% was converted to gases, 36% to oils, and 25% remained as residue. About 35% of the gas was methane and 42% carbon monoxide, plus other hydrocarbons, oxygen and carbon dioxide. The oils were almost all aromatic, forming a similar mixture to fuel oil. The residue was mainly carbon with inorganic compounds from the plastic additives and most of the chlorine from the feedstock. The results showed that the process produced around 70% of the original plastic weight as potential fuel.

Multi-criteria group decision making for evaluating the performance of e-waste recycling programs under uncertainty

“…It helps to assess the effects of individual e-waste recycling programs on the environment and the society (Alston et al, 2011;Kim et al, 2013). Such impact of the e-waste programs is usually measured by the landfill reduction (C 11 ) and the regulatory compliance (C 12 ) in a specific situation.…”

“…This is assessed by the ability to separate e-waste materials (C 41 ) and ewaste recovery (C 42 ). The separation of waste materials (C 41 ) reflects on the ability to separate waste materials that include the removal of toxic materials, chlorinated plastics, ferrous and non-ferrous metals (Alston et al, 2011). Waste recovery (C 42 ) refers to the amount of e-waste that can be recovered from the recycling process.…”

An efficient and fast analytical procedure for the bromine determination in waste electrical and electronic equipment plastics

“…In particular, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polystyrene (PS) and polyolefins (PP) represent the largest volume of commodity plastics used in the electronic industry. [1][2][3][4][5] Furthermore, the presence of hazardous substances in WEEE materials, such as BFRs, is another factor that makes difficult the waste management of these residues and prevents their recycling together with conventional waste fractions. Briefly, the term BFRs refers to a group of chemicals that if added to some plastics prevent or even avoid their combustion by depriving the flames of oxygen.…”

Application of pyrolysis process to remove and recover liquid crystal and films from waste liquid crystal display glass

“…Pyrolysis has been proven to be an effective alternative for resource recovery [11]. The pyrolysis of wastes has been investigated in the context of disposal of waste printed circuit boards, scrap tires, and waste plastics, among others [12].…”