engleski

TGA investigation of polyurethane plastic thermal properties under different atmospheric conditions

Recycling and energy recovery of waste plastic are major categories of modern solid waste management systems. Since the lower heating values of plastics are around 30 MJ/kg, equivalent to traditional solid fuels, such as petroleum coke, coal and charcoal, waste plastics are considered as potential fossil fuels alternatives in various industrial sectors. Already nowadays, energy recovery of waste plastic is typically conducted by combustion in incinerators or cement kilns. However due to various types of waste plastics, their thermochemical behaviour has been rarely investigated. Even more, the thermochemical behaviour of waste plastics under oxy- combustion conditions has even rarely been studied. In this study non-isothermal thermogravimetric analyser (TGA) was used to study the thermochemical behaviour of polyurethane plastic waste under seven different atmospheric conditions (100% N2 ; 5% O2/95% N2 ; 20% O2/80% N2 ; 5% O2/95% CO2 ; 10% O2/90% CO2 ; 20% O2/80% CO2 ; 30% O2/70% CO2). The studied polyurethane was previously used as an insulation material inside refrigerators. Polyurethane decomposition kinetic constants have been estimated by the simultaneous evaluations of seven weight loss curves measured for the heating rate of 20 K/min and a final temperature of 1073 K. The obtained results showed that the studied polyurethane under an inert atmosphere (100% N2), decomposed quicker than in oxygen containing atmospheres. However, under an oxidative atmosphere, a smaller amount of mass was left at the end of the analysis, whereas in the inert atmosphere still the fixed carbon remained in the sample.

Recycling ; Energy recovery ; Waste plastic ; TGA

nije evidentirano