scholarly journals Plastic Fuel Conversion and Characterisation: A Waste Valorization Potential for Ghana

MRS Advances ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (26) ◽  
pp. 1349-1356
Author(s):  
Michael Commeh ◽  
David Dodoo-Arhin ◽  
Edward Acquaye ◽  
Isaiah Nimako Baah ◽  
Nene Kwabla Amoatey ◽  
...  

AbstractPlastics generally play a very important role in a plethora of industries, fields and our everyday lives. In spite of their cheapness, availability and important contributions to lives, they however, pose a serious threat to the environment due to their mostly non-biodegradable nature. Recycling into useful products can reduce the amount of plastic waste. Thermal degradation (Pyrolysis) of plastics is becoming an increasingly important recycling method for the conversion of plastic materials into valuable chemicals and oil products. In this work, waste Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) water bottles were thermally converted into useful gaseous and liquid products. A simple pyrolysis reactor system has been used for the conversions with the liquid product yield of 65 % at a temperature range of 400°C to 550°C. The chemical analysis of the pyrolytic oil showed the presence of functional groups such as alkanes, alkenes, alcohols, ethers, carboxylic acids, esters, and phenyl ring substitution bands. The main constituents were 1-Tetradecene, 1-Pentadecene, Cetene, Hexadecane, 1-Heptadecene, Heptadecane, Octadecane, Nonadecane, Eicosane, Tetratetracontane, 1-Undecene, 1-Decene). The results are promising and can be maximized by additional techniques such as hydrogenation and hydrodeoxygenation to obtain value-added products.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sachin Kumar ◽  
R. K. Singh

Thermal degradation of plastic polymers is becoming an increasingly important method for the conversion of plastic materials into valuable chemicals and oil products. In this work, virgin high-density polyethylene (HDPE) was chosen as a material for pyrolysis. A simple pyrolysis reactor system has been used to pyrolyse virgin HDPE with an objective to optimize the liquid product yield at a temperature range of 400°C to 550°C. The chemical analysis of the HDPE pyrolytic oil showed the presence of functional groups such as alkanes, alkenes, alcohols, ethers, carboxylic acids, esters, and phenyl ring substitution bands. The composition of the pyrolytic oil was analyzed using GC-MS, and it was found that the main constituents were n-Octadecane, n-Heptadecane, 1-Pentadecene, Octadecane, Pentadecane, and 1-Nonadecene. The physical properties of the obtained pyrolytic oil were close to those of mixture of petroleum products.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Jia Wang ◽  
Yuxin Wang ◽  
Yijian Wu ◽  
Yuwei Fan ◽  
Changliang Zhu ◽  
...  

Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) has been widely utilized as a tool for developing new biological and phenotypic functions to explore strain improvement for microalgal production. Specifically, ALE has been utilized to evolve strains to better adapt to defined conditions. It has become a new solution to improve the performance of strains in microalgae biotechnology. This review mainly summarizes the key results from recent microalgal ALE studies in industrial production. ALE designed for improving cell growth rate, product yield, environmental tolerance and wastewater treatment is discussed to exploit microalgae in various applications. Further development of ALE is proposed, to provide theoretical support for producing the high value-added products from microalgal production.


2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafei Shen

Abstract Pyrolysis has been considered as a promising thermochemical process that can convert biomass in nonoxidizing atmospheres to value-added liquid bio-oil, solid biochar, and noncondensable gas products. Fast pyrolysis has a better economic return because of the valuable biofuel production (e.g. bio-oil, syngas). Because of the complexity and heterogeneity of the feedstocks, the one-step pyrolysis often leads to the mixed, acidic, and highly oxygenated liquid products. Moreover, the downstream processes (e.g. deoxygenation) for the desired fuels require high costs on energy and catalysts consumption. Stepwise pyrolysis is defined as a temperature-programmed pyrolysis that can separately obtain the products from each temperature step. It is a feasible approach to accomplish the fractionation by optimizing the pyrolysis process based on the decomposition temperature ranges and products among the biomass constituents. In recent years, the stepwise pyrolysis technology has gained attentions in thermochemical conversion of complex organic solid wastes. Through the stepwise pyrolysis of a real waste, oxygenated and acidic products were concentrated in the first-step liquid product, whereas the second-step product normally contained a high portion of hydrocarbon with low acidity. The stepwise pyrolysis of biomass, plastics, and their mixtures is comprehensively reviewed with the objective of fully understanding the related mechanisms, influence factors, and challenges.


2017 ◽  
Vol 757 ◽  
pp. 166-170
Author(s):  
Kodchakon Kun-Asa ◽  
Lalita Attanatho ◽  
Prasert Reubroycharoen

Palm oil is considered as a potential feedstock for biofuel production in Thailand due to its property and availability. In recent years, there has been an increased attention on upgrading of palm oil to biofuels using various technologies. One of the most promising technologies is pyrolysis, in which palm oil is heated at the temperature in the range of 400 to 500 °C under oxygen-free atmosphere. In the present study, the uncoated catalyst and coated catalyst pyrolysis processes of palm oil for biofuel production in a continuous flow microchannel reactor were investigated with various catalyst types (MgO, Al2O3) at 400-500 °C, 2 ml/hr palm oil flow rate, and 0.1 g of catalysts. Liquid product yield, solid product yield and gaseous product yield were determined. The obtained results revealed that the high triglyceride conversion could be achieved at a short reaction time in microchannel reactor, which attributed to the enhancement of both heat and mass transfer. The pyrolysis liquid products composed of hydrocarbons, free fatty acids, and other oxygenated compounds which are the results of triglyceride cracking. Furthermore, product selectivity of palm oil pyrolysis depended on temperature and catalyst type.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasret Akgün ◽  
Ece Yapıcı ◽  
Zerrin Günkaya ◽  
AYSUN ÖZKAN ◽  
Müfide Banar

Abstract Background In this study, pyrolysis of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and LDPE with aluminum (C/LDPE) wastes was carried out with different heating rates (5-10-20°C/min) at different temperatures (400-600-800°C). The effect of temperature and heating rate on liquid product yield was investigated. Product yields of LDPE and C/LDPE wastes were compared, and optimum liquid products were analyzed to utilize as commercial waxes for future use. Methods To determine the parameters of pyrolysis wastes was investigated with proximate, elemental analysis, and TGA. The as-produced liquid from pyrolysis of wastes was characterized by different characteristic tools, such as elemental analyses, GC-MS analyzes, 1H-NMR tests, FT-IR spectra, the density, melting point, and carbon residue to compare commercial waxes. The characterization process was continued for the parameters with the optimum liquid products. Results As a result of pyrolysis, the highest liquid product yield was achieved at 800°C with 5°C/min heating rate (85.87 %), and at 600°C with 5°C/min heating rate (71.3 %) for LDPE and C/LDPE, respectively. The results indicated that the derived liquid products are similar to commercial heavy wax.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1681-1684
Author(s):  
Georgi Toskov ◽  
Ana Yaneva ◽  
Stanko Stankov ◽  
Hafize Fidan

The European Commission defines the bioeconomy as "the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products and bioenergy. Its sectors and industries have strong innovation potential due to their use of a wide range of sciences, enabling and industrial technologies, along with local and implied knowledge." The Bulgarian food industry faces a lot of challenges on the local and national level, which have direct influence on the structure of the production companies. Most of the enterprises from the food sector produce under foreign brands in order to be flexible partners to the large Bulgarian retail chains. The small companies from the food sector are not able to develop as an independent competitive producer on the territory of their local markets. This kind of companies rarely has a working strategy for positioning on new markets. In order to consolidate their already built positions for long period of time, the producers are trying to optimize their operations in a short term. However, the unclear vision of the companies for the business segment does not allow them to fully develop. Tourism in Bulgaria is a significant contributor to the country's economy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 3726-3731
Author(s):  
Fenghui Ye ◽  
Jinghui Gao ◽  
Yilin Chen ◽  
Yunming Fang

Electroreduction of CO2 into value-added products is a promising technique in which the structure of the catalyst plays a crucial role.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
María Florencia Eberhardt ◽  
José Matías Irazoqui ◽  
Ariel Fernando Amadio

Stabilization ponds are a common treatment technology for wastewater generated by dairy industries. Large proportions of cheese whey are thrown into these ponds, creating an environmental problem because of the large volume produced and the high biological and chemical oxygen demands. Due to its composition, mainly lactose and proteins, it can be considered as a raw material for value-added products, through physicochemical or enzymatic treatments. β-Galactosidases (EC 3.2.1.23) are lactose modifying enzymes that can transform lactose in free monomers, glucose and galactose, or galactooligosacharides. Here, the identification of novel genes encoding β-galactosidases, identified via whole-genome shotgun sequencing of the metagenome of dairy industries stabilization ponds is reported. The genes were selected based on the conservation of catalytic domains, comparing against the CAZy database, and focusing on families with β-galactosidases activity (GH1, GH2 and GH42). A total of 394 candidate genes were found, all belonging to bacterial species. From these candidates, 12 were selected to be cloned and expressed. A total of six enzymes were expressed, and five cleaved efficiently ortho-nitrophenyl-β-galactoside and lactose. The activity levels of one of these novel β-galactosidase was higher than other enzymes reported from functional metagenomics screening and higher than the only enzyme reported from sequence-based metagenomics. A group of novel mesophilic β-galactosidases from diary stabilization ponds’ metagenomes was successfully identified, cloned and expressed. These novel enzymes provide alternatives for the production of value-added products from dairy industries’ by-products.


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