Analytical Pyrolysis

The demand of world plastic production increased every year due to the vast applications in many sectors and daily activities. The continuous demand of plastics caused the plastic wastes accumulation in the landfill consumed a lot of spaces that contributed to the environmental problem, incineration waste plastics also cause health impact for human and animal health. The rising in plastics demand led to the depletion of petroleum as part of non-renewable fossil fuel since plastics are petroleum-based material. Some alternatives that have been developed to manage plastic wastes are recycling and energy recovery method. However, there are some drawbacks of the recycling method as it required high labor cost for the separation process and caused water contamination that reduced the process sustainability. Due to these downsides, the energy recovery method to compensate the high energy demand is the suitable and sustainable solution. Through extensive investigation and technology development, the plastic waste conversion to energy becomes vulnerable issue. As petroleum is the main source of plastic manufacturing, the recovery of plastic to liquid oil through pyrolysis process had a great potential since the oil produced had high calorific value comparable with the commercial fuel. This paper reviewed the pyrolysis process of plastics and tires and the main process parameters that influenced the final end product. In addition the depolymerization mechanisms, properties and composition of the recycled oil and other by products are discussed.