Co-pyrolysis of biomass and plastic: evaluation of synergistic effects and kinetics by analytical pyrolysis

Biomass represents an abundant energy resource, which can provide second generation fuels and value-added chemicals. At the same time, the amount of plastics produced has increased sharply in the past few years. Thermochemical processes such as pyrolysis have drawn attention as interesting options for the utilization and valorisation of these waste materials. The co-pyrolysis of biomass-plastic wastes mixtures offers a potential way to upgrade these wastes since it produces synergistic effects arising from the interaction of the two components. Analytical pyrolysis techniques are the most used approaches to investigate products distribution and thermal decomposition of biomass and plastic co-pyrolysis. Pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) and evolved gas analysis (EGA-MS) were exploited to investigate the co-pyrolysis of biomass and plastic wastes. Several waste materials were characterized to select the best feedstocks for co-pyrolysis experiments. The selected materials were mixed in different blending ratios and studied by Py-GC/MS and EGA-MS to obtain information on the chemical composition of the pyrolyzate and information about synergistic effects and kinetics