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CHAPTER 41
Abstract
Various technologies are being developed to overcome the drawback of plastics, namely, their
non-biodegradability. Though work has been done to make futuristic biodegradable plastics,
there have not been many conclusive steps towards cleaning up the existing problem.
Recycling waste plastics into reusable plastic products is a conventional strategy followed to
address this issue for years. However this technique has not given impressive results as
cleaning and segregation of waste plastics was found difficult. Over a 100 million tones of
plastics are produced annually worldwide, and the used products have become a common
feature at overflowing bins. Plastics is placed in a landfill, it becomes a carbon sink,
Incineration, blast furnace, gasification are not much appreciated solution to the problem, as
toxic gases are produced and their cost of production is quite high. Pyrolysis of waste plastics
into fuel is one of the best means of conserving valuable petroleum resources in addition to
protect the environment. This process involves catalytic degradation of waste plastic into fuel
range hydrocarbon i.e. petrol, diesel and kerosene etc. A catalytic cracking process in which
waste plastic were cracked at very high temperature, the resulting gases were condensed to
recover liquid fuels. Type of plastics also effect the rate of conversion of into fuel and the
results of this process are found to be better than other alternate methods which are used for
the disposal of waste plastic.
41.1 Introduction
Plastics play an important role in day- today life. It is unique material because of their
toughness, light weight, resistance to water and chemicals, resistant to heat and cold, low
electrical and thermal conductivity, ease of fabrication, remarkable color range, more design
flexibility, durability and energy efficiency. Due to above properties it is used in packaging
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Plastic waste management is biggest problem now due to their non- biodegradability
nature. Now plastics manage by plastics recycling technologies.
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plastics are increased from about 2.6 MT in 2003 to about 3.6 MT in 2007(MOEF, 2007).
Also it is estimated that approximately 10 thousand tons per day (TPD) of plastics waste is
generated i.e. 9% of 1.20 lacks TPD of MSW in the India(CPCB, 2003). 32 million of plastics
were generated in 2011 in America, representing 12.7 percent of total MSW (EPA, 2011). It is
estimated that 100 million tones of plastics are produced each year with PE, PS, PVC and PP
amounting to more than 65% of total produced. The average European throws away 36kg of
plastics each year. Discarded plastic products and packaging materials make up a growing
portion of municipal solid waste. Plastics packaging totals 42% of total consumption and very
little of this is recycled (Vogler et al, 1984), etc. Only 8 percent of the total plastic waste
generated in 2011 was recovered for recycling (EPA, 2011).
Plastics waste may grow in India in future because more and other countries like as
U.S, China and U.K will comes in Indian market. There is a much wider scope for recycling
in developing countries mainly in India due to low labor cost, plastics consumption increase
and therefore raw materials increase.
1. Littered plastics spoils beauty of the city and choke drains and make important public
places dirty.
2. Garbage containing plastics, when burnt may cause air pollution by emitting polluting
gases.
3. Garbage mix with plastics gives problem in landfill operation.
4. Lack of recycling plant to posing unhygienic problem to environment
41.1.3 Side Effect of plastics in nature
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3. Plastics are produced from petroleum derivatives and are composed primarily of
hydrocarbons but also contain additives such as antioxidants, colorants, and other
stabilizers.
4. However, when plastic products are used and discarded, these additives are
undesirable from an environmental point of view.
5. Burning of plastics give NOX, COX, SOX, particulate, dioxins, furans and fumes to
increase air pollution with result acid rain and increase global warming.
6. Plastics in land fill area leaching of toxins into ground water.
41.2.2 Biodegradability
Plastics are non biodegradable material that resists microbial attack. Though work has
been done to make futuristic biodegradable plastics, there have not been many conclusive
steps towards cleaning up the existing problem because prices of biodegradable plastics is
more than petrochemicals based plastics. It may be due to high cost of production and low
availability or high cost of raw materials. Some degradable plastics have been developed, but
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none has proved compatible with the conditions required for most waste landfills. Thus, there
is an environmental problem associated with the disposal of plastics.
Fossil fuel i.e. coal, petroleum and natural gas age is expected to span only 1000 years
of human civilization (1700 AD to 2700 AD). It is limited sources which are likely to be
exhausted in a few more decades or centuries. Increasing population and fuel consumption
rates increase in petroleum prices and due to this the energy starvation is felt by every
developing and less developed country. The Growing energy demand in table 1.2 is below.
Some developing countries like as India have to import petroleum for transportation
and chemical industry sector. The prices of petroleum are increasing due to increase prices in
international market. Conversion of waste plastics into fuel is complete the some part of
objectives in National Energy Strategy is:
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If PE, PS, PP with other plastics gives flue gas pollution and contaminated to reactor
by making other unexpected compound. In contamination to reactor resulting liquid may
contain alcohol, waxy hydrocarbons and inorganic substance. Type of plastics and their
product in table 4 is below.
Pyrolysis of waste plastics in presence of catalyst lower the pyrolysis temp and
reaction time, increase conversion rate of waste plastics into fuel, increase the yield of fuel
and satisfying diesel, petrol quality of fuel by increase octane value of petrol and decrease
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pour point of diesel. Catalyst use for this purpose is solid acids such as silica, alumina,
zeolite, zeoliteY, mordenite, HZSM-5, MCM-41. Acidic catalysts (HZSM-5, Zeolitey,
mordenite and so on) have greater efficiency than less acidic ones, for example amorphous
alumina silicate. The pore size and structure of catalyst determine their performance on
cracking reaction as well as production, for example mordenite size( about 7x8) larger give
large product molecules while HZSM-5 have smaller pore size(5x5) give small product
molecules.(P.A. Parikh and Y.C. Rotliwala, 2008)
Collect waste plastics and separate that clean and recyclable. Store the waste plastics
that cant separate. Shredding of waste plastics to reduce volume of its. Shredded plastics is
treated in a cylindrical reactor at temperature of 300C 350C(Pawar harshal and Lawankar
Shailendra, 2013).Plastics waste further cracked with catalyst and resulting hydrocarbons are
condensed from water cool condenser and collected in receiver. Then liquid fuel fractionates
to get diesel, kerosene, petrol etc.
Gases produced are toxic, corrosive with non toxic gases. For example hydrogen
chloride, hydrogen sulfide etc is toxic and non toxic is butanes, methane, ethane and
propylene. So all the gases are treated from this process before it discharge into atmosphere.
Therefore flue gas treated through scrubbers and water/ chemical treatment for neutralization
i.e. Solution of methanol amine is use in hydrogen sulfide absorption. Treated flue gas can
incinerate use in dual Fuel diesel-generator set for generation of electricity. After process
remove the formed carbonous substance or residue in reactor to work as insulator for
maintaining the efficiency of process. The block diagram of process is given in figure1.
41.4.6 Yield
41.5.1 Eco-friendly
The fuel satisfies quality of liquid fuel with low sulfur content and low carbon residue.
The properties of waste plastic pyrolysis oil and diesel in table 5.
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Flow of waste into heating vessel in absence of oxygen and presence of catalyst
Figure 1- Conversion waste plastics into liquid fuel (Pawar Harshal and lawankar, 2013)
Table 5: Properties of Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Oil and Diesel.
Sr. No. Properties WPPo Diesel
1. Density(kg/m2) 793 850
2. Ash content (%) <1.01%wt 0.045
3. Calorific value(kJ/kg) 41,800 42,000
4. Kinematic viscosity @ 2.149 3.05
40C(cst)
5. Cetane number 51 55
6. Flash point oC 40 50
7. Fire point oC 45 56
8. Carbon residue (%) 0.01%wt 0.20%
9. Sulphur content (%) <0.002 <0.035
10. Pour point oC -4 3-15
(Pawar Harshal and Lawankar, 2013)
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41.5.2 Feasibility
Process of conversion of waste plastics into liquid fuels is feasible. Also the rate of
fuel does not vary widely along the period. The cost for per kg of input and related output in
table 1.6 is below.
Liquid fuels from petroleum is diesel, petrol, kerosene require to mix various additives
for improving burner and engine performance but fuel from waste plastics does not require to
add these additives for work on burner and engines. Tarry waste or residue in reactor can use
as solid fuel.
Based on review papers, waste plastics liquid fuel is good alternative method for
obtaining new energy resource and eliminate greater problem of plastics waste management.
In India 3.6 million ton of plastics waste generated in 2007. Improper management of plastics
gives hazardous problem to human and environment. Mechanical recycling is not effective to
reduce to problem of plastics waste. Incineration, gasification , blast furnace is other method
does not effectively eliminate to this problem due to air pollution, economical unfeasibility
compare to waste plastics fuel method. Biodegradable plastics are not meet at same rate as
petroleum based plastics.
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Abbreviation
PET- polyethylene terephthalate
HDPE- high density polyethylene
LDPE- low density polyethylene
PS- polystyrene
PVC- polyvinyl chloride
PP- polypropylene
PF- phenol formaldehyde
PU- poly urethane
PVA- poly vinyl alcohol
PVDC- polyvinylidene chloride
References
1. Antony Raja and Advaith Murali, 2011 Conversion of Plastic Wastes into Fuels
Journal of Materials Science and Engineering B 1 (2011) 86-89
2. Birley, A. W., Heath, R. J., and Scott, M. J. (1988) Plastics Materials. Blackie, 2nd ed.
Introductory scientific textbook.
3. Central Pollution Control Board. Study on solid waste management CPCB Delhi.
(2003).
4. Environment Protection Agency, U.S.A. Study on solid waste management (2011).
5. Ministry Of Environment and Forest. News letter on solid waste management, New
Delhi, (2007)
6. Pawar Harshal R. and Lawankar Shailendra M.(2013) Waste plastic Pyrolysis oil
Alternative Fuel for CI Engine A Review Research Journal of Engineering Sciences
ISSN 2278 9472 Vol. 2(2), 26-30, February (2013)
7. P.K Parikh PhD, Y.C Rotliwala (2008) DOI: 10.1680/warm.2008.161.2.85
ISSN : 1747-6526
8. S Rao, Dr. B.B Parulekar (2012) Energy Technology (NONCONVENTIONAL,
RENEWABLE & CONVENTIONAL), Khanna Publishers, ISBN NO. 81-7409-040-1
9. Tiwari D.C., Ejaz Ahmad, Kumar Singh K.K. Catalytic degradation of waste plastic
into fuel range hydrocarbons International Journal of Chemical Research, ISSN: 0975-
3699, Volume 1, Issue 2, 2009, pp-31-36
10. UNEP, Converting Waste Plastics into Resource, (2009).
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