| dc.description.abstract | This research aims to evaluate the energy conversion efficiency and pyrolytic products partitioning characteristics in co-pyrolysis of Polycarbonate (PC) and
Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) using a fixed-bed reactor with controlling the temperature at 550-650℃ and blending ratio of 1:3, 1:1, and 3:1 at 650℃. The thermogravimetric analysis technology was also used to analyze the tested materials’ thermal reaction kinetic parameters and evaluate the synergistic effect between the tested materials.
According to the thermogravimetric analysis results, the reaction activation energies of PC and TPU were 402.42 kJ/mol and 125.23 kJ/mol, respectively. The reaction activation energy of PC decreased with the TPU blending ratio increasing in co-pyrolysis. In the case of PC:TPU=1:1, the reaction activation energy was approximately 124.92 kJ/mol. It implied that the thermal reaction characteristics of coblending of PC and TPU have tended to TPU thermal reaction characteristics. In addition, according to the results of mass loss rate in co-pyrolysis of PC and TPU, the
synergistic effect occurred during the thermal decomposition reaction process as coblending of 50% PC and 50% TPU. Therefore, the reaction activation energy showed a
decreasing trend with the co-blending of the tested materials.
The pyrolysis temperature does not significantly affect the partitioning of PC and TPU pyrolytic products. When pyrolysis temperature is controlled at 650 °C, the gasphase
pyrolytic product was the majority and ranged between 68% and 80%. In the case of co-blending 50% PC and 50% TPU, the pyrolytic product partitioning percentage was approximately 68.8% of the gas phase, 24.4% of the liquid phase, and 6.8% of the solid phase, respectively. Meanwhile, 24.4% of the liquid-phase product consisted of 23.54% of the heavy fraction oil and 0.87% of the light fraction oil. According to the Oxygen-to-Carbon molar ratio (O/C ratio) in the liquid-phase product, the O/C ratio of the light-fraction oil could decrease to 0.07 during the co-pyrolysis of the PC and TPU process. It implied that the pyrolytic oil aging could be migrated by co-blending PC and TPU. The heavy fraction oil speciation derived from PC and TPU was aromatics compounds by pyrolysis. However, the oxygenated hydrocarbon compounds became dominant as the pyrolysis temperature increased from 550℃ to 650℃. The dominant
speciation of the light fraction oil was oxygenated hydrocarbon compounds pyrolyzed between the temperature of 550℃ and 650℃. In the case of the co-pyrolysis of PC and
TPU with different blending ratios, the yields of oxygenated hydrocarbon compounds in the heavy fraction oil and aromatics compounds in the light fraction oil both increased
significantly.
Based on the energy density analysis results, the gas-phase pyrolytic product mainly contributed to the energy production in the co-pyrolysis of PC and TPU. The total energy density of all pyrolytic products increases with the pyrolysis temperature increasing. In the case of pyrolysis temperature of 650 ℃, the total energy density of pyrolytic
products in pyrolysis of PC and TPU were 0.30 and 1.37, respectively. It implied that TPU could provide a good energy conversion efficiency. Besides, in the case of 50%
PC and 50% TPU blending conditions, the total energy density of all pyrolytic products was approximately 0.86. It also could effectively achieve the energy conversion application. In summary, the results of this research have preliminarily
established the thermal reaction kinetics, pyrolytic product partitioning, and speciation in co-pyrolysis of PC and TPU. The total energy density of the pyrolytic products was
also successfully evaluated. To further successfully perform the scale-up test and assess the pyrolytic product characteristics and their energy benefits in the future, it will help promote the development and application of the co-pyrolysis technology of PC and TPU. | en_US |