Production of Fuel Oil from Municipal Plastic Wastes Using Thermal and Catalytic Pyrolysis

Abstract

Plastics have become an essential part of modern life today. The global production of plastics has gone up to 299 million tonnes in 2013, which has increased enormously in the present years. The utilization of plastics and its final disposal pose tremendous negative significant impacts on the environment. The present study aimed to investigate the thermal and catalytic pyrolysis for the production of fuel oil from the polyethene plastic wastes. The samples collection for both plastic wastes and clay catalyst, sample preparation and pyrolysis experiment for oil production was done in Laroo Division, Gulu Municipality, Northern Uganda Region, Uganda. Catalysts used in the experiment were acid-activated clay mineral and aluminium chlorides on activated carbon. The clay mineral was activated by refluxing it with 6M Sulphuric acid for 3 hours. The experiment was conducted in three different phases: The first phase of the experiment was done without a catalyst (purely thermal pyrolysis). The second phase involves the use of acid-activated clay mineral. The third phase was done using aluminium chlorides on activated carbon. Both phases were done at different heating rates. In purely thermal pyrolysis, 88 mL of oil was obtained at a maximum temperature of 39ºC and heating rates of 12.55ºC /minute and reaction time of 4 hours. Acid activated clay mineral yielded 100 mL of oil with the heating rates of 12.55ºC/minute and reaction time of 3 hours 30 minutes. While aluminium chlorides on activated carbon produced 105 mL of oil at a maximum temperature of 400ºC and heating rates of 15.5ºC /minute and reaction time of 3 hours 10 minutes. From the experimental results, catalytic pyrolysis is more efficient than purely thermal pyrolysis and homogenous catalysis (aluminium chlorides) shows a better result than solid acid catalyst (activated clay minerals) hence saving the energy needed for pyrolysis and making the process more economically feasible.

Challenges and opportunities in sustainable management of microplastics and nanoplastics in the environment

“…As shown in Fig. 2, the recycling of plastic waste reduces the environmental burden and generates paths for further applications, such as the fabrication of value-added carbon materials (Chang et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2020a;Cho et al, 2019;Dankwah et al, 2018;Wen et al, 2019), fuels, aromatic chemicals (Miandad et al, 2018;Omol et al, 2020;Thahir et al, 2019), construction/cementitious materials Lahtela et al, 2019), polymers, and fibers Hu et al, 2019).…”

“…At present, pyrolysis, catalytic steam reforming (Miandad et al, 2019;Omol et al, 2020), and hydrothermal technologies are emerging applications (Nabgan et al, 2017). The pyrolysisreforming method yields high H2, generally more than 30 g per 100 g of plastic waste (Barbarias et al, 2016).…”

A Critical Review on the Development and Utilization of Energy Systems in Uganda

“…Recycling petroleum products such as polythene, PET bottles, and polypropylene into diesel can also be beneficial to the environment as well as increasing fuel supply in the country. This is attracting a number of researchers in the present days on how diesel fuel oil can be obtained from municipal plastic wastes, and it is efficient to use in transportation [ 191 ]. It can be concluded that the Uganda oil project is generally profitable and that deferring oil production is justified except in the cases where the net convenience yield or cost inflation is high [ 192 ].…”

Thermal Degradation Conditions Effects on Selected Biomass Wastes and Characterization of Their Produced Biochar

“…As one of the most popular bioenergy conversion technologies, thermal pyrolysis of carbon-rich biomass is unique because it produces bio-char in addition to biofuel. Omol et al [3] in their recent research work involving conversion of municipal plastic wastes to fuel oil also reported the pyrolysis process as an effective approach to achieving their research objective. Findings from studies of Mary et al [4] and Block et al [5] have highlighted the benefits of biochar technologies, particularly concerning carbon sequestration via land application of biochar.…”