Kinetics modeling of waste plastic mixture pyrolysis for liquid fuel production

Plastic waste is very difficult to decompose completely since the process requires a long degradation time. One of the thermal treatment methods that can be used to reduce the amount of plastic wastein a relatively short of time is pyrolysis producing mostly liquid that can be used for fuels. Pyrolysis is a process of thermal degradation of polymeric materials such as plastics and organic materials such as biomass by heating without involving any oxygen molecules. The reaction mechanism that occurs in the pyrolysis process has not been observed properly. Most of the previous polypropylene pyrolysis research simplifies the reaction mechanism in which plastic decompose directly into three kinds of products causing some inaccuracy. This study aims to further investigated the reaction kinetics that occur in the polypropylene pyrolysis process. The pyrolysis process of polypropylene has been carried out with temperature variations of 350, 400, 450, 500 and 550 °C.The experimental data were fitted into the model equations and numerically adjusted to get the value of reaction rate constants. The calculation data is validated using the coefficient of determination to predict the right reaction mechanism. The results showed that by using the Kaufopanosreaction mechanism approach was well fitted with experimental data. The activation energy obtained using the model II mechanism is 201.51 kJ/mol. © BEIESP.