Study On The Thermal And Catalytic Co-pyrolysis Of Corncob And Low Density Polyethylene Mixtures

Nowadays, people are confronted with the shortage of energy and resources. The energy demand and natural resources consumptions are substantially increased by continuous growth of world population. Meanwhile enormous amounts of wastes are produced. In many countries, the average composition (mass %) of municipal solid waste (MSW) is as follows: 65% cellulose or lignin derived materials; 15% polymer based material and 20% inorganic material. Polyolefinic polymers, like polyethylene, contain approximately 14 wt% hydrogen. It seems that the co-pyrolysis of biomass and plastic mixtures could have potential for the environmentally friendly transformation of lignocellulosic and plastic waste to valuable products. These materials could provide hydrogen during the co-pyrolysis with biomass and can lead to an increase of liquid production.In the present work, low density polyethylene (LDPE) which is one of the highest proportions of polymer and corncob that is the one of the widely encountered agriculture waste are selected as raw materials to produce liquid chemicals. The yields of products and components of liquid products obtained from LDPE pyrolysis alone and catalytic co-pyrolysis of corncob/LDPE mixture were performed at different temperature, different pyrolysis atmosphere, different reaction time and different catalysts are discussed. Catalytic co-pyrolysis of corncob/LDPE mixture was performed in nitrogen and hydrogen atmospheres,...