Abstract:
It can be observed that the widespread use of plastic materials as a means of packaging goods, creates huge disposal issues and environmental concerns after usage. The aim of this paper is to carry out the thermal pyrolysis of plastic materials for the production of fuel. The purpose of this work is to employ the process of pyrolysis to convert waste plastic material into fuel that can be utilised as a source of energy for several applications. The methodology used to carry out this work involves the process of thermal pyrolysis in which a specific amount of waste plastic materials was charged into a furnace and heated up to about 500oC. The plastic is melted and converted into gaseous substance and subsequently condensed into liquid fuel in different condensing vessels. The calorific value and the chemical composition of the pyrolysis fuel obtained was determined using a bomb calorimeter and X-ray spectroscopy respectively. The determination of the mass balance carried out on the pyrolysis experiment reveals 82% of liquid fuel, 9.3% of gaseous fuel and 8.7% of char for HDPE. While the X-ray spectroscopy test confirms the following elemental composition; carbon 84.59%, hydrogen 15.25%, nitrogen 0.16%. Furthermore, the calorific value determine by the bomb calorimeter was 47,380 kJ/kg. The pyrolysis fuel can be utilised for powering mechanical threshers, hammer mills e.t.c.
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