Influence of operating parameters on the yield of micro-plastics from plastics incineration

Mingnuo Jin; Mufei Sun; Jingyi Liu; Changqing Dong; Junjie Xue

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169347

Influence of operating parameters on the yield of micro-plastics from plastics incineration

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Feb 20:912:169347. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169347. Epub 2023 Dec 15.

Authors

Mingnuo Jin¹, Mufei Sun¹, Jingyi Liu¹, Changqing Dong¹, Junjie Xue²

Affiliations

¹ School of New Energy, North China Electric Power University, No.2 Beinong Road, Beijing 102206, PR China.
² School of New Energy, North China Electric Power University, No.2 Beinong Road, Beijing 102206, PR China. Electronic address: Junjiexue@ncepu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38104822
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169347

Abstract

Plastics account for a large proportion of domestic waste. However, micro-plastics will be produced after the plastic is incinerated. The purpose of this study is to find out the change rule of micro-plastics produced during incineration under different conditions. Combining micro-FTIR and PCA algorithm is a good tool to identify the micro-plastics. The PE, PP and PVC micro-plastics are distinguished using PCA-FTIR spectra. The results show different incineration conditions significantly affect the output of micro-plastics. The yield of micro-plastics increases with increasing temperature for both PP and PVC. And the yield of micro-plastics decreases with the increase in flow rate. The maximum amount of micro-plastics is produced by PE, which is 6.62 × 10³ after 1 g PE incineration. The yield of micro-plastics in the co-incineration of PE and PP, as well as PE and PVC, significantly increased to 1.42 and 1.89 times of the calculated values, respectively. The nano-particles are also observed. The FTIR and EDS results show that the nano-particles are the products of incineration of plastics, including partly CH bond and unburned carbon, tar and ash.

Keywords: Incineration; Micro-FTIR; Micro-plastics; Operating parameters; SEM.