Sensitivity Analysis of Thermal Degradation of Plastic Waste Using Statistically Assumed Exponential Factors and Activation Energies

Rao Adeel Un Nabi; Hammad Hussain; Muhammad Yasin Naz; Shazia Shukrullah; Hassan Abbas Khawaja; Muhammad Irfan; Saifur Rahman; Abdulnour Ali Jazem Ghanim

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c00801

Sensitivity Analysis of Thermal Degradation of Plastic Waste Using Statistically Assumed Exponential Factors and Activation Energies

ACS Omega. 2023 Apr 4;8(15):14122-14130. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c00801. eCollection 2023 Apr 18.

Authors

Rao Adeel Un Nabi¹, Hammad Hussain², Muhammad Yasin Naz¹, Shazia Shukrullah¹, Hassan Abbas Khawaja³, Muhammad Irfan⁴, Saifur Rahman⁴, Abdulnour Ali Jazem Ghanim⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan.
² Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan.
³ Department of Automation and Process Engineering, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, 9019 Tromsø, Norway.
⁴ Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Najran University, Najran 61441, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Civil Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Najran University, Najran 61441, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

The rise in the production of plastic waste has prompted the exploration of various recovery options instead of landfilling, burning, and other unethical ways of decomposing. The experimentally generated rate constants for the thermal processing of plastic waste do not yield enough liquid fuels and gases for commercial-scale usage. It is imperative to predict kinetic rate constants statistically using an appropriate combination of activation energies (E _a) and frequency factors (A _o) for the optimized thermal valorization of plastic waste. This approach also assists in controlling the selectivity and quantity of the pyrolysis products. A statistical kinetic model was tested to find the best combination of rate constants from different combinations of E _a and A _o to pyrolyze the high-density polyethylene. Two series of E _a and A _o were first assumed using R software. These series were then used to predict kinetic rate constants and analyze their sensitivity independently using MATLAB. The rate constants were varied from their originally predicted values during the sensitivity analysis. It was found that the rate constant k(7) dominated the other predicted rate constants where high oil and gas yields were concerned. The gas yield increased from lower to higher extreme positions in the range of 60%-74% with the first series and from 65% to 81% with the second series. The maximum oil content was found around 74% and 65% with the first series and second series, respectively.