Thermal Pyrolysis of Hospital Plastic Waste

Abstract

Plastic plays an important role in our daily lives due to its versatility, light weight and low production cost. The amount of plastic waste is growing every year and with that comes an environmental concern regarding this problem. Pyrolysis as a tertiary recycling process is presented as a solution. In this work, the pyrolysis of hospital plastic waste products was investigated using thermal non catalytic cracking techniques. The experimental work was carried out using a pyrolysis reactor operating under an inert atmosphere at 450°C. Results indicated that the waste plastic is able to give the yield of liquid product by using a pyrolysis reactor. The obtained product was fuel liked liquid heavy oil which was viscous and had a yellow color. The fuel properties of the diesel-range distillate (diesel fraction) were comparable to other conventional fuel and found its calorific value was 31 MJ/kg.