Week 2

This Blog: Lit Review on our Idea

 Plastic To Fuel (Using Pyrolysis)

Why is this a good idea?

Plastics are inexpensive and durable. As a result, level of plastic production by humans are high. Moreover, the chemical structure of most plastics renders them to resistant to many natural processes of degradation. As a result, plastics are slow to degrade. These 2 factors combined to have led to a high prominence of plastic pollution in the environment. Another factor is also humans, are not having the habit to recycle plastics, or even just throwing out our trash into bins. As a result, millions of animals are killed by plastics every year. However, there are many ways we can reduce plastic pollution by converting these waste plastics into useful resources. One of the ways is to reuse plastics and convert them into fuels.

Brief Explanation of how it works

Plastic has to go through a densifier that compresses the plastic pieces into dense material to facilitate easier storage . The pyrolysis process takes place in a chamber where plastic is heated to up to 450°C in the presence of a catalyst and in the absence of oxygen. The plastic is slowly melted and is then converted into gaseous stage. The gas will then be sent into a condenser where condensation will takes place. The gas will be converted into liquid state and is then sent into a oil refiner chamber. 

More Details of how it works

Plastic is exposed to high temperature is an oxygen free environment. The frequency at which plastic molecules vibrates is directly proportional to the temperature of the molecules. During pyrolysis, as these molecules are subjected to very high temperatures, this leads to very high molecular vibrations. At this molecular vibration, every molecule in the object is stretched and shaken to such an extent that molecules start breaking down into smaller molecules. As plastic is hard to break down, catalysts are added to help break the chemical bonds. A catalyst is something that makes a chemical reaction happen more quickly without itself being changed. Usually, flyash obtained from coal combustion or zeolite are used as catalyst. This waste plastic is converted into approximately 80% oil, 15% gas and 5% carbon black or ash. 

Figure 1: Plastic Pyrolysis Process

(Mool, 2021)

What is Pyrolysis?

Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures in an inert atmosphere, in the absence of air. It involves a change of chemical composition.

Advantages

- low cost

- reduces the risk of water pollution

- can be burned with a lower carbon footprint as compared to fossil fuels

- prevent waste products such as non-recyclable papers, plastics, wood waste, and textiles from ending up in landfill as they can be converted into fuel

- convert waste to fuel are producing fuels from combustible materials. These materials such as, non- recyclable papers, plastics, wood waste, and textiles are all either hard to recycle or non-recyclable. This is preventing those materials from ending up in a landfill. (Environmentally friendly)

- plastic pyrolysis can be used with almost any type of common plastic waste

Disadvantages

- Pyrolysis is an energy consuming process. More energy has to be put into treating the waste plastic than can actually be recovered.

- Some concerns around health risks due to energy recovery from the waste

(Burning solid fuels can release nitrous oxides, Sulphur dioxides, particulate matter, and other        harmful pollutants. However, these emissions can be managed with continuous regulation and pollution control technologies.)

- Pyrolysis is not ideal for certain types of plastic such as PVC as they have a low liquid product yield (Oil) and contain harmful substances when reacted (Hydrochloric Acid)

Lit Review:

No.	#Resource Type Peer-reviewed journals, Internet search engines, books, etc.	Title Article title, book title, etc	Author(s) Identify the author(s) of the resource	Methodology Experimental, Non-experimental, survey, interview, qualitative, etc.	Currency of Research State the year of publication	Main Research Questions(s) State the research question(s) addressed by the resource	Major Finding(s) Describe major finding(s) made by the resource	Similarity State any similarity in major findings observed among resources	Identified Research Gap (if applicable) Describe an area that requires further exploration
1.	Internet	Converting Plastic to Fuel	Carrissa Pahl	Experimental	October 29, 2020	What are the benefits in converting plastic to fuel because, we are still burning plastic which will waste energies.	Why turn plastic to fuel, Different techniques of conversion, Converting plastic to useful product such as hydrogen, diesel and sulphur, advantages, and the challenges.	Advantages& Disadvantages, Products which can be obtained	-
2.	Internet (Youtube)	How Waste Plastic is converted into Fuel	Karthi	Experimental	February 10,2020	How does the process of Pyrolysis work?	Advantages, Disadvantages, and a brief explanation on how Pyrolysis works.	Advantages & Disadvantages, Process of Pyrolysis	Detailed explanation on how pyrolysis works.

3.	Internet	Can we convert plastic waste to petroleum?	Sumedh Mool	Experimental	-	How does the process of Pyrolysis work?	Innovations to convert plastic waste to fuels, and the plastic pyrolysis process.	Process of Pyrolysis	Why do we do pyrolysis?
4.	Science Direct	Analysis and Simulation of mini pyrolysis reactor for conversion of plastic waste to fuel.	Kundan Kumar Jha, T.T.M Kannan, J, Chandradass, Vincent Herald Wilson	Experimental	March 21, 2020	Is building a mini pyrolysis reactor possible?	A mini pyrolysis is possible to be built. However, there are limitation to how much temperature, thermal stresses, and thermal strain the mini pyrolysis reactor can hold.	-	-
5.	Research Article	Pyrolytic Waste Plastic Oil and Its Diesel Blend:FuelCharacterization	M.Z.H. Khan,M.Sultana,M.R.Al-Mamum, nad M.R.Hasan	Experimental	June 5, 2016	Fuel Characterization	The process of Pyrolysis. The material used and methods. Result on the yield of fuel produced.	Process of Pyrolysis	-

6.	Science Direct	Conversion of waste plastic to fuel products	B.S.S Phanisankar, N. Vasudeva, J.E. Manikanta	Experimental	March 28, 2020	Plastic waste management, Thermal Cracking, Fuel Products	Processes of converting plastic into fuel products.	Products which can be obtained	What are the benefits of pyrolysis.
7.	Science Direct	Recycling of plastic waste into fuel by pyrolysis - a review	Kundan Kumar Jha, T.T.M.Kannan	Experimental	August 6, 2020	Ideal conditions for pyrolysis.	Optimum Reaction temperature for best yield is 450-500°C	Process of Pyrolysis	Advantages & disadvantages of pyrolysis
8.	Research Article	Recycling of Waste Plastics into Pyrolytic Fuels and Their Use in IC Engines	Sinan Erdogan	Experimental	April 22, 2020	Which conditions yield the most amount of the desired product i.e. solid, liquid or gas product.	Temperature of over 500°C produces mostly gas and solid product, while temperature of between 300°C-500°C produces mostly liquid product.	Products which can be obtained	-

 

 

Table 2: List of References (10%)

No.	Reference
1	https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/resources/converting-plastic-waste-fuel/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20popular,at%20a%20very%20high%20temperature.&text=The%20process%20places%20polypropylene%20in,from%20380%2D500%20degrees%20Celsius.   Pahl, C., 2020. Converting Plastic Waste to Fuel. [online] Plug and Play Tech Center. Available at: <https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/resources/converting-plastic-waste-fuel/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20popular,at%20a%20very%20high%20temperature.&text=The%20process%20places%20polypropylene%20in,from%20380%2D500%20degrees%20Celsius.> [Accessed 20 May 2021].
2	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1STaZYZ-P1w   How Waste Plastic is converted into Fuel. 2021. [video].
3	https://www.ecoideaz.com/innovative-green-ideas/convert-plastic-waste-to-petroleum   Mool, S., n.d. Can We Convert Plastic Waste to Petroleum?. [online] EcoIdeaz. Available at: <https://www.ecoideaz.com/innovative-green-ideas/convert-plastic-waste-to-petroleum> [Accessed 20 May 2021].
4	https://www-sciencedirect-com.sp.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S2214785321015285   Kumar, K., T.T.M, K., J., C., Herald Wilson, V. and Das, A., 2020. [online] Www-sciencedirect-com.sp.idm.oclc.org. Available at: <https://www-sciencedirect-com.sp.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S2214785321015285> [Accessed 20 May 2021].
5	https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/2016/7869080/   2021. Pyrolytic Waste Plastic Oil and Its Diesel Blend: Fuel Characterization. [ebook] Available at: <https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jeph/2016/7869080/> [Accessed 20 May 2021].
6.	https://www-sciencedirect-com.sp.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S2214785320316709   Www-sciencedirect-com.sp.idm.oclc.org. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www-sciencedirect-com.sp.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S2214785320316709> [Accessed 20 May 2021].
7	https://www-sciencedirect-com.sp.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S2214785320377828   Kuman Jha, K. and Kannan, T., 2020. [online] Www-sciencedirect-com.sp.idm.oclc.org. Available at: <https://www-sciencedirect-com.sp.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S2214785320377828> [Accessed 20 May 2021].
8	https://www.intechopen.com/books/sustainable-mobility/recycling-of-waste-plastics-into-pyrolytic-fuels-and-their-use-in-ic-engines   Sinan Erdogan, 2020. [online] Available at <https://www.intechopen.com/books/sustainable-mobility/recycling-of-waste-plastics-into-pyrolytic-fuels-and-their-use-in-ic-engines> [Accessed 20 May 2021].