Effect of heating rate on pyrolysis of low-grade pyrolytic oil

The low-grade pyrolytic oil produced from pyrolysis of municipal plastic waste in a commercial rotary kiln reaction system cannot be an acceptable fuel oil due to its low quality. Thus, the degradation of pyrolytic oil was conducted in a bench scale batch reactor, which was done by two experiment conditions of high heating rate (about 7 °C/min) and low heating rate (1.5–3.6 °C/min) up to 420 °C of reaction temperature. The characteristics of raw pyrolytic oil were examined and also the characteristics of products obtained by different heating rates were compared. Raw pyrolytic oil had higher H/C ratio and higher heating value than commercial oils, and also its peak range in GC analysis showed wide distribution including all the range of gasoline, kerosene and diesel. In the upgrading of pyrolytic oil, cumulative amount profile of product oil, as a function of reaction time, was similar in shape to the degradation temperature profile. All product oils obtained by different degradation temperature had higher H/C ratio and slightly higher heating value than those of raw pyrolytic oil. Also, the characteristics of product oils were influenced by heating rate and reaction temperature.