Abstract
Abstract Pyrolysis of plastics has been shown to form oil, gas, and char. Interaction effects affect the distribution of the product phases as well as the oil and gas compositions, making it difficult to predict the pyrolysis product of polymer mixtures. This project aimed to create predictive models for the prediction of oil and char yield as well as acid number, viscosity of the oil and oil composition. This was done utilizing a simplex lattice mixture design and Scheffé polynomial models. Pyrolysis of a fixed amount of polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and 0–20 wt.% of polyamide 6 (PA6), polystyrene (PS), and ethylene–vinyl acetate (EVA) were performed in a batch reactor with fixed process variables. The main oil compounds were 2,4-dimethyl-1-heptene due to PP and styrene due to PS. Predictive models were successfully developed for determining the oil composition based on the feedstock composition, most with an explanation degree ranging from 0.503 to 0.985. The composition was severely affected by the PS content, due to the large amount of styrene and toluene affecting the composition. A significant interaction effect between PA6 and EVA, as well as EVA and PS was shown to increase oil yield. Increasing the PA6 content decreased the oil production and increased the char product. The acid number increases with EVA and the viscosity increases with the PA6 content.Graphical Abstract
NETL
NSTL
Springer Nature