Pyrolysis of Municipal Plastic Waste (MPW) into Fuel and Chemicals

Plastics are very convenient materials due to their versatility, low weight, high resistance, durability and low cost. Since their first uses plastic products have gained popularity every year. During 2014, it was estimated that global plastics demand was 311 million tonnes of which about 40% corresponded to packaging products. The increasing demand of plastic products implies a rise in plastic waste. Since 2004, plastic waste in Europe have been steadily rising about 2% p.a. Despite the promotion of re-use and recycling treatments in legislation, still half of the global plastic waste generated every year end up in landfills, causing several serious environmental and health problems. From a sustainable point of view, recovery treatments and incineration with energy recovery are preferred. Between them, recovery treatments such as gasification and pyrolysis do not only present low carbon emission (<1 tonne CO2-eq/kg plastic waste) but also transform a waste into a resource again.

This project aims to assess the use of non-recyclable municipal plastic waste (HDPE, LDPE, PP, PET and PS) as an alternative source for energy and chemicals. This project will assess the potential market value and applications for the products obtained as well as research the thermal behaviour and reactivity of the MPW mixture during conventional, catalytic and non-thermal plasma assisted pyrolysis.

Publications:

Diaz-Silvarrey L.S., Phan A.N. Kinetic study of municipal plastic waste. International journal of Hydrogen Energy 41(37) (2016) 16352-16364

Conferences:

8th International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Protection (SEEP 2015), 11–14 August 2015, Paisley. Oral presentation: “Kinetic study of municipal plastic waste (MPW)”

Workshops:

UK-Japan Engineering Education Meeting Program: Sustainability in mega cities, a case study of London and Tokyo, 5-8 August 2016, Tokyo. Poster presentation "Pyrolysis of municipal plastic waste for fuels and chemicals"

Newton Fund Al-Farabi Researcher Links UK-Kazakhstan Workshop on Low-Carbon Energy Future, 26-29 September 2016. Oral presentation: "Integrated and intensified biorefining of waste for energy, fuels and chemicals"