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Designing and Fabricating a Prototype Pyrolysis Batch Reactor for Recycling Plastic Waste Materials to Oil

Received: 3 July 2023     Accepted: 16 August 2023     Published: 28 August 2023
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Abstract

Plastics like other materials have wide engineering applications. This is because of their lightweight and are resistant to corrosion among others. However, the amount of plastic waste generated every day produces a significant environmental threat. There is therefore a need to convert plastic wastes into useful products using thermochemical techniques. Pyrolysis has been found a reliable method. However, to the best knowledge of the author, few pyrolysis batch reactor designs exist. During the study, attention was focused on designing and fabricating a prototype pyrolysis batch reactor. The reactor was made of mild steel with a capacity of 1.2x10-2m3/batch of waste plastic. This was tested for five batches using 1000 g of LDPE plastics per batch. The temperature was maintained at 250, 350, and 450°C and at residence times of 40, 50, and 60 minutes. The test result showed that the highest amount of oil produced was 250 mL while the lowest amount of oil produced was 132 mL at 450°C and 250°C. The lowest char quantity produced was 450 g and the highest was 600 g at 450°C and 250°C respectively. The highest (19.28 %) conversion efficiency was achieved at 450°C whereas the lowest (10.18%) was obtained at 250°C. Similarly, the waste reduction efficiency of waste plastics in oil increased as the external heat temperature was increased with the highest value (55 %) obtained at 450°C and the lowest (40%) waste reduction value obtained at 250°C. The study showed that the pyrolysis reactor was found to be more operational and functional at 450°C and 60 minutes of temperature and residence time respectively.

Published in Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering (Volume 8, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.jeece.20230803.11
Page(s) 53-58
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Pyrolysis Reactor, LDPE, Residence Time, Oil, Char

References
[1] A. Aswan, I. Rusnadi, Fatria, Zurohaina, and R. Daniar, “Re-Design Pyrolysis Reactor Prototype for the Conversion of Plastic Waste into Liquid Fuel,” J. Phys. Conf. Ser., vol. 1500, no. 1, 2020.
[2] E. H. Istoto, Widayat, and S. Saptadi, “Production of Fuels from HDPE and LDPE Plastic Waste via Pyrolysis Methods,” E3S Web Conf., vol. 125, no. 201 9, pp. 9–12, 2019.
[3] M. Salih, R. Muhammed, R. P. Tms, K. Ct, M. Mk, and F. Poolakkal, “Design and Fabrication of Pyrolysis Unit,” Int. J. Innov. Sci. Res. Technol., vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 799–801, 2018.
[4] A. Jayswal, A. Kumar, P. Pradhananga, S. Rohit, and H. Bahadur, “Design, Fabrication and Testing of Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Plant,” Proc. IOE Grad. Conf., vol. 5, no. July 2018, pp. 275–282, 2017.
[5] K. Aditya, “Designed a Simple Pyrolysis Reactor for Plastic Waste Conversion into Liquid Fuel using Biomass as Heating Source,” 2020, ISSN: 1410-394X.
[6] Y. Shukla, H. Singh, S. Sonkar and D. Kumar, “Design of Viable Machine to Convert Waste Plastic into Mixed Oil for Domestic Purpose,” International Journal of Engineering Research and Development, E-ISSN: 2278-067X, P-ISSN: 2278-800X, Volume 12, April 2016, pp. 09-14.
[7] D. Pranay, S. Satpute, S. Ganver, and T. Mate, “Design and Fabrication of Machine to Extract Base Oil from Plastic,” 2017, Volume 3, IJARIIE-ISSN(0)-2395-4396.
[8] Suhartono, K. Priyono, R. Ate, A. Iqbal, and Y. Muhamad, “Fuel Oil from Municipal Plastic Waste through Pyrolysis with and without Natural Zeolite as Catalysts,” E3S Web of Conferences 73, 01021, pp 1-6, 2018.
[9] M. Firke, “Design and Fabrication of Pyrolysis Unit for Generation of Fuel from Plastic Waste,” International Journal of Future Generation Communication and Networking, Vol. 13, No. 2s, 2020, Pp. 769–779, ISSN: 2233-7857 IJFGCN Copyright ©2020 SERSC 769.
[10] Y. Zhang, Y. Wang, and A. Li, “Liquid Oils Produced from Pyrolysis of Plastic Wastes with Heat Carrier in Rotary Kiln.” Fuel Processing Technology, 2020.
[11] E. C. Rapsing, “Design and Fabrication of Waste Plastic Oil Converter,” vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 69–77, 2016.
[12] C. Abhishek, B. Lohithkumar, I. Ahamed, R. Praveena and M. Amruth, “Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Oil Alternative Fuel for an IC Engine,” International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology, ISSN: 2278-0181, pp 1-7, 2019.
[13] M. Aziz, R. Al-khulaidi and M. Rashid, “Design and Fabrication of a Fixed-bed Batch Type Pyrolysis Reactor for Pilot Scale Pyrolytic Oil Production in Bangladesh,” IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 184 (2017) 012056.
[14] R. Geyer, J. Jenna, and L. Kara, “Production, Use, and Fate of All Plastics Ever Made,” DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700782, ISSN 2375-2548, pp. 1-6, 2017.
[15] S. Babajo, J. Enaburekhan, and I. Rufa, “Design, Fabrication and Performance Study of Co-Pyrolysis System for Production of Liquid Fuel from Jatropha Cake with Polystyrene Waste,” vol. 25 (3) 407-414, pp. 1-8, March 2021.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Nankwasa Crispuss, Ogene Fortunate. (2023). Designing and Fabricating a Prototype Pyrolysis Batch Reactor for Recycling Plastic Waste Materials to Oil. Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, 8(3), 53-58. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeece.20230803.11

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    ACS Style

    Nankwasa Crispuss; Ogene Fortunate. Designing and Fabricating a Prototype Pyrolysis Batch Reactor for Recycling Plastic Waste Materials to Oil. J. Energy Environ. Chem. Eng. 2023, 8(3), 53-58. doi: 10.11648/j.jeece.20230803.11

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    AMA Style

    Nankwasa Crispuss, Ogene Fortunate. Designing and Fabricating a Prototype Pyrolysis Batch Reactor for Recycling Plastic Waste Materials to Oil. J Energy Environ Chem Eng. 2023;8(3):53-58. doi: 10.11648/j.jeece.20230803.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jeece.20230803.11,
      author = {Nankwasa Crispuss and Ogene Fortunate},
      title = {Designing and Fabricating a Prototype Pyrolysis Batch Reactor for Recycling Plastic Waste Materials to Oil},
      journal = {Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering},
      volume = {8},
      number = {3},
      pages = {53-58},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jeece.20230803.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeece.20230803.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jeece.20230803.11},
      abstract = {Plastics like other materials have wide engineering applications. This is because of their lightweight and are resistant to corrosion among others. However, the amount of plastic waste generated every day produces a significant environmental threat. There is therefore a need to convert plastic wastes into useful products using thermochemical techniques. Pyrolysis has been found a reliable method. However, to the best knowledge of the author, few pyrolysis batch reactor designs exist. During the study, attention was focused on designing and fabricating a prototype pyrolysis batch reactor. The reactor was made of mild steel with a capacity of 1.2x10-2m3/batch of waste plastic. This was tested for five batches using 1000 g of LDPE plastics per batch. The temperature was maintained at 250, 350, and 450°C and at residence times of 40, 50, and 60 minutes. The test result showed that the highest amount of oil produced was 250 mL while the lowest amount of oil produced was 132 mL at 450°C and 250°C. The lowest char quantity produced was 450 g and the highest was 600 g at 450°C and 250°C respectively. The highest (19.28 %) conversion efficiency was achieved at 450°C whereas the lowest (10.18%) was obtained at 250°C. Similarly, the waste reduction efficiency of waste plastics in oil increased as the external heat temperature was increased with the highest value (55 %) obtained at 450°C and the lowest (40%) waste reduction value obtained at 250°C. The study showed that the pyrolysis reactor was found to be more operational and functional at 450°C and 60 minutes of temperature and residence time respectively.},
     year = {2023}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Designing and Fabricating a Prototype Pyrolysis Batch Reactor for Recycling Plastic Waste Materials to Oil
    AU  - Nankwasa Crispuss
    AU  - Ogene Fortunate
    Y1  - 2023/08/28
    PY  - 2023
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeece.20230803.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.jeece.20230803.11
    T2  - Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering
    JF  - Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering
    JO  - Journal of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering
    SP  - 53
    EP  - 58
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2637-434X
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeece.20230803.11
    AB  - Plastics like other materials have wide engineering applications. This is because of their lightweight and are resistant to corrosion among others. However, the amount of plastic waste generated every day produces a significant environmental threat. There is therefore a need to convert plastic wastes into useful products using thermochemical techniques. Pyrolysis has been found a reliable method. However, to the best knowledge of the author, few pyrolysis batch reactor designs exist. During the study, attention was focused on designing and fabricating a prototype pyrolysis batch reactor. The reactor was made of mild steel with a capacity of 1.2x10-2m3/batch of waste plastic. This was tested for five batches using 1000 g of LDPE plastics per batch. The temperature was maintained at 250, 350, and 450°C and at residence times of 40, 50, and 60 minutes. The test result showed that the highest amount of oil produced was 250 mL while the lowest amount of oil produced was 132 mL at 450°C and 250°C. The lowest char quantity produced was 450 g and the highest was 600 g at 450°C and 250°C respectively. The highest (19.28 %) conversion efficiency was achieved at 450°C whereas the lowest (10.18%) was obtained at 250°C. Similarly, the waste reduction efficiency of waste plastics in oil increased as the external heat temperature was increased with the highest value (55 %) obtained at 450°C and the lowest (40%) waste reduction value obtained at 250°C. The study showed that the pyrolysis reactor was found to be more operational and functional at 450°C and 60 minutes of temperature and residence time respectively.
    VL  - 8
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Mining, Chemical, and Petroleum Engineering, Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda

  • Department of Mining, Chemical, and Petroleum Engineering, Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda

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