V. Cozzani et al., INFLUENCE OF GAS-PHASE REACTIONS ON THE PRODUCT YIELDS OBTAINED IN THE PYROLYSIS OF POLYETHYLENE, Industrial & engineering chemistry research, 36(2), 1997, pp. 342-348
The characterization of the product fractions obtained from the pyroly
sis of polyethylene (PE) in a laboratory-scale fixed bed reactor was p
erformed. The experimental system allowed quantitative information to
be obtained on the global tar, char, and gas yields. Pyrolysis runs we
re performed using reactor temperatures ranging between 500 and 800 de
grees C. The influence of, the residence times in the reactor of the p
rimary volatiles generated by the pyrolysis process was also discussed
. The secondary reactivity of the tar originated from PE pyrolysis was
examined. A lumped-parameters approach was used in order to evaluate
the global kinetic parameters for the gas-phase tar-cracking process.
PE tars resulted to be more refractory to thermal decomposition than t
hose obtained in the pyrolysis of biomass and lignocellulosic material
s, but more reactive than tars obtained in the pyrolysis of coal.