Pyrolysis of municipal plastic wastes: Influence of raw material composition

The objective of this work is the study of pyrolysis as a feedstock recycling process, for valorizing the rejected streams that come from industrial plants, where packing and packaging wastes are classified and separated for their subsequent mechanical recycling. Four real samples collected from an industrial plant at four different times of the year, have been pyrolysed under nitrogen in a 3.5 dm³ autoclave at 500 °C for 30 min. Pyrolysis liquids are a complex mixture of organic compounds containing valuable chemicals as styrene, ethyl-benzene, toluene, etc. Pyrolysis solids are composed of the inorganic material contained in the raw materials, as well as of some char formed in the pyrolysis process, and pyrolysis gases are mainly composed of hydrocarbons together with some CO and CO₂, and have very high gross calorific values (GCV). It has been proved by the authors that the composition of the raw material (paper, film, and metals contents) plays a significant role in the characteristics of pyrolysis products. High paper content yields water in the pyrolysis liquids, and CO and CO₂ in the gases, high PE film content gives rise to high viscosity liquids, and high metals content yields more aromatics in the liquid products, which may be attributed to the metals catalytic effect.