Evaluation of Thermal Decomposition and Pyrolysis Process Parameters on Typical Polymer Materials in Solid Waste

Abstract

Pyrolysis of plastic polypropylene (PP), plastic poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) and latex gloves in solid waste was studied using thermogravimetric analyzer coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR). Pyrolysis characteristic and kinetic analysis of different materials were discussed. From TG and DTG curves, the pyrolysis of plastic PP turned out to be the most concentrative, followed by latex gloves and plastic PVC. For volatile species analysis, evolved volatile products from all these three materials included alkene, alkane, carbon dioxide, and water, especially, for plastic PVC, HCl was the most volatile species; among the evolved species, HCl can be easily identify, but the different of standard spectrum for alkene or alkane is no significant, thus it is difficult to clearly identification alkane or alkene from the mixed gas. For kinetic analysis, kinetic parameters for the first reaction based Arrhenius theory was got.