Utilization of Two Different Types of Plastic Wastes from Daily and Industrial Life

Abstract

In this study, two different plastic wastes: polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from daily usage and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from industrial usage were selected as feedstocks in order to evaluate them instead of using traditional disposal methods such as landfilling or incineration. Among alternative techniques, pyrolysis which creates different types of products according to changing operating conditions was selected as a thermochemical conversion method. At the first part of this study, pyrolysis experiments were carried out with a thermogravimetric analyzer from room temperature to 800°C under 100 cm³ min^-1 N₂ flow at heating rate of 10 °C min^-1. With the obtained data thermal and kinetic behaviors were determined and an appropriate temperature for the fixed bed experiments were determined. At the second step, same raw materials were pyrolyzed in a fixed-bed reactor at the same conditions except to the final temperature of 500°C in order to produce the solid, liquid and gas products. Pyrolysis products were characterized by using FT-IR, SEM and GC-MS characterization techniques. Experimental results showed that co-pyrolysis could be an important method for the determination of the operating conditions and also an environmentally-friendly way for the transformation of the plastic wastes into valuable chemicals.