Co-pyrolysis of Biomass and Plastics waste: A Modelling Approach

Thermal co-processing of waste mixtures had gained a lot of attention in the last decade largely due to certain synergistic effects such as higher quantity and better quality of oil, limited supply of certain feedstock and improving the overall pyrolysis process. Many experiments have been done using the TGA analysis and different reactors to achieve the stated synergistic effects in co-pyrolysis of biomass and plastic wastes. The thermal behaviour of plastics during pyrolysis is different from that of biomass because its decomposition happens at a high temperature range (>450 degrees C) with sudden release of volatile compared to biomass which have a wide range of thermal decomposition. Therefore it is worthwhile to study the possible synergistic effects on the overall energy used during co-pyrolysis process. In this work, two different modelling approaches were used to study the energy related synergistic effect between polystyrene (PS) and bamboo waste. The results show that both modelling approaches give an appreciable synergy effect of reduction in overall energy when PS and bamboo are co-pyrolyzed together. However, the second approach which allows interaction between the two feedstocks gives a more reduction in overall energy usage up to 6.2 % depending on the ratio of PS in the mixed blend.