Comparative analysis of fuels derived from pe plastic waste with a mixture of plastic recycling waste of codes: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 based on low-temperature pyrolysis

Thanks to their numerous advantages, plastics are becoming more and more widely used in all branches of industry. The quantities of products, their packaging and, consequently, the amount of synthetic polymer waste are steadily increasing, what poses a high risk to the environment due to their long decomposition time. To reduce waste production is practically impossible, therefore it is very important to constantly implement new and improve existing methods of waste treatment. The following article presents one of the alternative methods for synthetic polymer waste treatment, which is low-temperature pyrolysis. Two pyrolysis processes were carried out. During the first experiment a polyethylene plastic material was used, in the second experiment a mixture of typical household recycling waste of codes 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were tested. During the thermal processing, the input material undergoes a chemical transformation due to breaking of long hydrocarbon chains. At the same time, high-energy density products, such as petroleum products and gas, are produced. The main advantage of the presented method is that it allows reducing preliminary technological processes to a minimum and it is easily automated, as it reduces the process to one compact installation. The reduction of the amount of stored waste and the recovery of petroleum derivatives, are additional advantages of pyrolysis implementation. That, in consequence allows reducing consumption of fossil fuel resources