Co-pyrolysis of sugarcane bagasse and low-density polyethylene: Influence of plastic on pyrolysis product yield

Published Date
1 December 2016, Vol.185:508–516, doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2016.08.011

Full Length Article

Author 

• Ashish Dewangan
• Debalaxmi Pradhan ^,
• R.K. Singh

• Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Odisha 769008, India

Received 1 February 2016. Revised 3 June 2016. Accepted 1 August 2016. Available online 9 August 2016.

Highlights

• Co-pyrolysis of SCB/LDPE significantly improved the quality of fuel obtained.
• •
  The maximum liquid product yield obtained was 52.75% at 500 °C with 1:1 SCB/LDPE ratio.
• •
  The calorific value of SCB/LDPE co-pyrolysis oil was 40 MJ/kg which was better than that for SCB pyrolysis oil and almost equal to that of conventional fuel.
• •
  Co-pyrolysis resulted in decreases of oxygen percentage from 33% to 15.06%.

Abstract 

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect on plastic during co-pyrolysis with biomass. Pyrolysis of sugarcane bagasse (SCB), low density polyethylene (LDPE), and their mixtures of different ratios was carried out in a semi-batch reactor with varying temperatures ranging from 350 to 600 °C at a heating rate of 20 ± 1 °C/min. The maximum liquid product yields for the pyrolysis of SCB and LDPE obtained were 47.15% and 74.40%, respectively, whereas the maximum liquid product yield for SCB/LDPE co-pyrolysis was 52.75% at 500 °C with 1:1 blend ratio. A significant improvement of the calorific value has been observed for the co-pyrolytic oil in comparison with SCB pyrolytic oil. The results of GC–MS and FTIR analysis confirmed the interaction between SCB and LDPE during co-pyrolysis, which resulted into a decreasing amount of oxygenated compounds, phenol and acidic compounds, makes the co-pyrolysis process more favorable for the production of high calorific value fuel.

Keywords

Co-pyrolysis

LDPE

Sugarcane bagasse

Pyrolysis oil

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  Corresponding author.

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