(704b) Experimental Studies and Kinetic Modeling of Co-Pyrolysis of Biomass and Plastic Wastes with the Combined Scheme of Kinetics and Machine Learning Method

Biomass can be utilized to generate biochar, biogas, and bio-oil through pyrolysis. Among these bioproducts, bio-oil can be upgraded to produce biofuels as an alternative to crude oils. Plastic wastes caused serious issues on the environment. The buried plastic wastes leached poisonous chemicals to pollute soil and groundwater. The disposal of plastic wastes is difficult, and the co-pyrolysis of biomass and plastics can be a promising solution to address this issue. However, the design and process optimization of co-pyrolysis is challenging, due to the complexity of biomass and plastics. The fundamental understanding of reaction kinetics is essential for the commercialization of co-pyrolysis. A new scheme in which the classical kinetic model is combined with a machine learning method is proposed to provide comprehensive description on the co-pyrolysis. In the proposed combined scheme, a parallel-reaction kinetic model is developed as a knowledge-based model while an artificial-neural-network (ANN) machine learning model is built as an experience-based model. The combined scheme will provide thorough understanding on the co-pyrolysis, based on the knowledge and experience for the process. The findings from this project will be applied to facilitate the design and commercialization of the co-pyrolysis.