Development of pyrolysis process reactor for extracting fuel from plastic waste

Abstract

Plastic is extensively used as an alternative material for wood, metal and glass due to its versatile properties like resistance to corrosion, resistant to water, low electrical and thermal conductivity, high strength-to-weight ratio, transparent, good durability, low cost, easy to manufacture and low toxicity. On the other hand, the nonbiodegradable nature of plastic creates pollution to the environment after the end of life. In India around 80% of used plastics are discarded as waste and resulted in accumulation of wastes about 25,940 tons per day. Only a small portion of it is recycled and remaining non-recyclable plastic wastes were disposed by incineration, landfill, etc. In this work, an attempt is made to develop an experimental set up of capacity 14.4 liters per day to convert waste plastics into usable fuel using pyrolysis concept. The performance of the pyrolysis reactor was investigated and presented in this paper. Conversion efficiency (wt %), waste reduction efficiency (wt %), and Oil recovery (ml/kg) were found to be 60%, 99% and 600 ml/kg respectively.