Microwave Pyrolysis of Plastic Wastes

Ludlow-Palafox, Carlos; Chase, Howard A.

doi:10.1002/0470021543.ch21

“…Up to now research in microwave pyrolysis has been centred on its application to treating wastes such as plastic waste [7], sewage sludge [74], scrap tyres [18], wood blocks [82], oil shales [41], and various organic wastes [84]. However, despite the variety of research that has been conducted on microwave pyrolysis, the growth of industrial microwave heating applications is hampered by an apparent lack of the understanding of microwave systems and the technical information for designing commercial equipment for these pyrolysis processes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the past two decades, research on pyrolysis processes has been conducted using several types of equipment heated by conventional heating source (e.g., an electric or gas heater), namely: fluidised bed reactors, rotating cone reactors, melting vessels, blast furnaces, tubular or fixed bed reactors [14,18].…”

Section: Current Pyrolysis Techniques For Waste To Energy Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review on Waste to Energy Processes Using Microwave Pyrolysis

Lam

¹

,

Chase

²

2012

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This paper presents an extensive review of the scientific literature associated with various microwave pyrolysis applications in waste to energy engineering. It was established that microwave-heated pyrolysis processes offer a number of advantages over other processes that use traditional thermal heat sources. In particular, microwave-heated processes show a distinct advantage in providing rapid and energy-efficient heating compared to conventional technologies, and thus facilitating increased production rates. It can also be established that the pyrolysis process offers an exciting way to recover both the energetic and chemical value of the waste materials by generating potentially useful pyrolysis products suitable for future reuse. Furthermore, this review has revealed good performance of the microwave pyrolysis process when compared to other more conventional methods of operation, indicating that it shows exceptional promise as a means for energy recovery from waste materials. Nonetheless, it was revealed that many important characteristics of the microwave pyrolysis process have yet to be raised or fully investigated. In addition, limited information is available concerning the characteristics of the microwave pyrolysis of waste materials. It was thus concluded that more work is needed to extend existing understanding of these aspects in order to develop improvements to the process to transform it into a commercially viable route to recover energy from waste materials in an environmentally sustainable manner. OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2012, 5 4210

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“…The different pyrolysis processes have various conventional and unconventional heating methods. The development of an efficient heating method, with a precise control of heating parameters and with a reduction of adverse effects on the quality of the product is one of the challenges to be overcome in the development of efficient pyrolytic processes [56]. The use of microwave can be an efficient way of heating the biomass in a thermochemical conversion processes.…”

Section: Microwave Assisted Pyrolysis (Mwap)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Chromatographic Methods Applied to the Characterization of Bio-Oil from the Pyrolysis of Agro-Industrial Biomasses

Moraes¹,

Tomasini²,

Silva³

et al. 2017

Frontiers in Bioenergy and Biofuels

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Biomass conversion into solid, liquid and gaseous products by pyrolytic technology is one of the most promising alternative to convert the biomass into useful products and energy. The total characterization of the products from the pyrolysis of biomass is one of the great challenges in this field, mainly due to their molecular complexity. Pyrolysis is a process that causes degradation of biomass in a non-oxidative atmosphere, at relatively high temperatures, producing a solid residue rich in carbon and mineral matter, gases and bio-oil. The yield and properties of the products depend on the nature of the biomass and the type of the pyrolysis process (type of reactor, temperature, gas flow, catalyst). Due to the high molecular complexity of bio-oil, many different technical had been developed to their complete characterization. This chapter describes the principles of the techniques and main application of chromatographic methods (GC, LC, GC × GC, LC × LC, Nano-LC) in the analysis of bio-oils derived from thermo-degradation of biomasses. Especial attention is carried out to two-dimensional techniques that represent the state of the art in terms of separation, sensibility, selectivity and velocity of data acquisition for characterization of complex organic mixtures. For proper use of bio-oil in the chemical industry, it is essential the identification and unambiguous determination of its major constituents. Only then, it is possible to propose a recovery route of some of these components for the development of an industry dedicated to a bio-refinery. For this, chromatographic methods, especially GC × GC/MS, are fundamental because they allow analysis with high sensitivity and accuracy in identifying each constituent of the bio-oil.

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“…In microwave pyrolysis, the applied microwave radiation is targeted to and heats mainly the microwave-receptive particulate-carbon, creating a localized reaction 'hot zone' in which the added waste oil becomes totally immersed, providing excellent heat transfer and cracking capacity to crack the waste oil (C 11 -C 40 hydrocarbons) to mainly C 5 -C 18 hydrocarbons that can be re-condensed into pyrolysis-oil. The C 5 -C 18 hydrocarbons, together with other cracked hydrocarbons, then vaporise as pyrolysis-volatiles, leave the hot carbon bed, and move into the vapour zone (the space above the carbon bed in the reactor) before being driven out of the reactor by the N 2 purge gas. The authors suggested that the pyrolysis-volatiles in the vapour zone were less likely to undergo further secondary reactions (e.g., secondary thermal cracking, carbonization) to form incondensable pyrolysis-gases and chars as there may not be enough thermal energy to supply the endothermic enthalpy to drive the secondary reactions.…”

Section: Microwave-heated Pyrolysis Compared To Conventionally-heatedmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review on Waste to Energy Processes Using Microwave Pyrolysis

Lam¹,

Chase²

2017

Thermochemical Waste Treatment

1

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents an extensive review of the scientific literature associated with various microwave pyrolysis applications in waste to energy engineering. It was established that microwave-heated pyrolysis processes offer a number of advantages over other processes that use traditional thermal heat sources. In particular, microwave-heated processes show a distinct advantage in providing rapid and energy-efficient heating compared to conventional technologies, and thus facilitating increased production rates. It can also be established that the pyrolysis process offers an exciting way to recover both the energetic and chemical value of the waste materials by generating potentially useful pyrolysis products suitable for future reuse. Furthermore, this review has revealed good performance of the microwave pyrolysis process when compared to other more conventional methods of operation, indicating that it shows exceptional promise as a means for energy recovery from waste materials. Nonetheless, it was revealed that many important characteristics of the microwave pyrolysis process have yet to be raised or fully investigated. In addition, limited information is available concerning the characteristics of the microwave pyrolysis of waste materials. It was thus concluded that more work is needed to extend existing understanding of these aspects in order to develop improvements to the process to transform it into a commercially viable route to recover energy from waste materials in an environmentally sustainable manner. OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2012, 5 4210

show abstract

Microwave Pyrolysis of Plastic Wastes

Cited by 17 publications

References 57 publications

A Review on Waste to Energy Processes Using Microwave Pyrolysis

A Review on Waste to Energy Processes Using Microwave Pyrolysis

Chromatographic Methods Applied to the Characterization of Bio-Oil from the Pyrolysis of Agro-Industrial Biomasses

A Review on Waste to Energy Processes Using Microwave Pyrolysis

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