(48e) Experimental and Modeling Investigations on Co-Pyrolysis of Biomass and Plastic Wastes in a Vertical Tube Reactor

The co-pyrolysis of biomass and plastic waste offers an appealing strategy for converting waste materials into valuable products. This study aimed to explore the co-pyrolysis process of biomass and plastic waste using a vertical tube reactor. In this work, a blend of biomass and plastic waste was analyzed in a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) at four different heating rates (10, 20, 30, and 40 °C/min). Kinetic investigations were implemented using the TGA data to understand the co-pyrolysis kinetics. A parallel-reaction mechanism involving 28 reaction steps was formulated and coupled with a least-square optimization model to determine kinetic parameters such as pre-exponential factors and activation energies for all reaction steps.

To further explore the kinetics of co-pyrolysis and facilitate the design of co-pyrolysis reactors, the mixture of biomass and plastic wastes was investigated in a vertical tube reactor. The biomass and plastic wastes were heated in the absence of oxygen gas at 500, 600, and 700 C in the vertical tube reactor. The production of biochar, tar, and gas was measured at each temperature setting. A model incorporating the kinetics achieved from the previous TGA studies was developed to simulate co-pyrolysis in the vertical tube reactor. The kinetic model was integrated with another least-square optimization model and validated with experimental data to provide best-fit predictions on biochar, tar, and gas at all three reactor temperatures.