Technologies to Convert Bio mass into Energy
Pyrolysis is one of the technologies available to convert biomass to an intermediate liquid product that can be refined to drop-in hydrocarbon biofuels, oxygenated…….
PLASTIC REPROCESSING
Saving Earth by recyling the plastic
Plastic reprocesing refers to the process of recovering waste or scrap plastic and reprocessing the materials into functional and useful products. This activity is known as the plastic recycling process…..
Pyrolysis is one of the technologies available to convert biomass to an intermediate liquid product that can be refined to drop-in hydrocarbon biofuels, oxygenated fuel additives and petrochemical replacements. Pyrolysis is the heating of an organic material, such as biomass, in the absence of oxygen. Biomass pyrolysis is usually conducted at or above 500 °C, providing enough heat to deconstruct the strong bio-polymers mentioned above. Because no oxygen is present combustion does not occur, rather the biomass thermally decomposes into combustible gases and bio-char.
Most of these combustible gases can be condensed into a combustible liquid, called pyrolysis oil (bio-oil), though there are some permanent gases (CO2, CO, H2, light hydrocarbons), some of which can be combusted to provide the heat for the process. Thus, pyrolysis of biomass produces three products: one liquid, bio-oil, one solid, bio-char and one gaseous, syngas. The proportion of these products depends on several factors including the composition of the feedstock and process parameters. However, all things being equal, the yield of bio-oil is optimized when the pyrolysis temperature is around 500 °C and the heating rate is high (1000 °C/s) fast pyrolysis conditions. Under these conditions, bio-oil yields of 60-70 wt% of can be achieved from a typical biomass feedstock, with 15-25 wt% yields of bio-char. The remaining 10-15 wt% is syngas. Processes that use slower heating rates are called slow pyrolysis and bio-char is usually the major product of such processes. The pyrolysis process can be self-sustained, as combustion of the syngas and a portion of bio-oil or bio-char can provide all the necessary energy to drive the reaction.
Plastic that is collected from your homes, businesses and local recycling centres is sent to a Material Recovery Facilities (MRF), which separates plastic and non-plastic, and/or a Plastic Recovery Facilities (PRF), which sorts plastic by type. These facilities use sorting equipment such as an optical sorter which can distinguish between between different types of plastics. The plastic then goes to a reprocesses where it is washed, shredded and sorted further. The plastic is then melted and extruded a into new recycled plastic pellets. These pellets are sold on for use in new products.