Monitoring of generated gas from plastics during pyrolysis in hydrogen atmosphere by FT-IR

In order to characterize gas generation behavior of plastics during pyrolysis, a monitoring system using Fourier transform-infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) has been applied. This system can monitor simultaneously, continuously and simply the several kinds of gases, such as hydrocarbons, CO and CO2. Using this system, the influences of pyrolysis condition on gasification of plastics were investigated. The amount of gaseous components obtained from polyethylene(PE) and polypropyicne(PP) heated in nitrogen gas were almost constant at 40wt%-carbon on changes of temperature (at 600 and 1000 degrees C). In the case of pyrolysis in hydrogen gas, the amounts of gas from both plastics were increased to 100 wt%-carbon at 1000 degrees C. On the other hand, the gasification ratio of polystyrene at 1000 degrees C was only about 60 wt%-carbon even in hydrogen gas. Thus, the gas generation behavior from plastics on various conditions can be monitored by this system. It is thought that the gasification of (waste) plastics in actual processes such as a coke oven can be monitored by this system.