Co-Hydrolysis of Rice Bran Wax and Waste Plastics

Abstract

This work is a step towards the solution of both environmental safety and energy crisis.Tremendous use of plastic wares also leads to produce huge amount of plastics wastes.It is also pretty known that,plastics are non-biodegradable and possibly release toxic and greenhouse gases during incineration.Therefore,the investigation was the production and characterization of the oil obtained from co-pyrolysis of waste polypropylene and rice bran wax. The co-pyrolysis experiments were conducted in a semi-batch reactor within a temperature range of 400? to 650? which was obtained by Thermogravimetric analysis.The optimum pyrolytic oil at 550? i.e. 1:3 ratio(PP: RBW)has liquid yield of 80.5%,calorific value of 43.73 MJ/Kg.From physical characterization of oil,800.8 kg/m3 density,40.75? flash point and 43?fire point,shows a very close resemblance to diesel.The chemical composition of PP,RBW and 1:3 ratio analyzed by FTIR,GC-MS and NMR spectroscopy shows that the composition of all the three oils mainly contains aliphatic compounds and small amounts of oxygenated compounds.By determining the physical and chemical characterization,it can be stated that 1:3 ratio is a mixture of diesel and gasoline.After proper treatment and refining,the pyrolytic oil can be used as a substitute of fossil fuel.The solid residue of 1:3 ratio obtained after pyrolysis was characterized for its calorific value,SEM and BET analysis. The analysis proved that the char can be utilized as activated carbon and solid fuel.