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Procedia Engineering 42 (2012) 420 430

20th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering CHISA 2012

25 29 August 2012, Prague, Czech Republic

Development of process for disposal of plastic waste using

plasma pyrolysis technology and option for energy recovery
M. Punocha, B. Rujb, P. K. Chatterjeeb a*
a
ICPF, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Rozvojov 135, Prague 165 02, Czech Republic
b
CMERI, Mahatma Gandhi Avenue, Durgapur 713209, India

Abstract

Plasma pyrolysis is an innovative technology for transforming high calorific plastic waste into a valuable synthesis
gas (syngas) by means of thermal plasma. The process developed is a drastic non-incineration thermal process, which
uses extremely high temperature in an oxygen-starved environment to completely decompose input plastic waste into
syngas, composed of very simple molecules: CO, H2 and small amount of higher hydrocarbons. A 20 kg/hr capacity
plasma arc pyrolyser for treatment of plastic waste as well as energy recovery options from waste plastic has been
indigenously designed, developed, installed and studied its performance at the Central Mechanical Engineering
Research Institute (CSIR), Durgapur. After pyrolysis of plastic waste in the plasma arc reactor, generated hot gases
(syngas) are quenched through water scrubbing to avoid recombination reactions of gaseous molecules; this inhibits
the formation of toxic gases. Syngas composition has been characterized by Gas chromatograph; residue/ash
collected at the bottom of the pyrolyser has been analyzed on Neutron Activation Analyzer (NAA). Research results
indicated that the developed plasma pyrolyser might be a useful way of plastic waste treatment for energy recovery.

2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection under responsibility of the Congress Scientific Committee
(Petr Kluson) Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

Keywords: Plastic waste; plasma pyrolysis; syngas; energy

a
Corresponding author. . Tel.: +420-220-390-298; fax: +420-220-920-661.
E-mail address: punc@icpf.cas.cz.

1877-7058 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2012.07.433
 M. Puncochr et al. / Procedia Engineering 42 (2012) 420 430 421

1. Introduction

Over the past seventy years, the plastic industry has witnessed a drastic growth, namely in the
production of synthetic polymers represented by polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene
(PS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Plastics
also contribute to our daily life functions in many aspects. Household goods nowadays are mainly
composed of plastic or plastic reinforced materials, from packaging, clothing, appliances, and electrical
and vehicle equipment, to insulations, industrial applications, greenhouses, automotive parts, aerospace
and mulches. The rapid rate of urbanization in India has led to increasing plastic waste generation. This
increase has resulted in a large amount of plastic waste, particularly plastic bags and PET bottles, being
littered on the landscape of India. The per capita consumption of plastics in India is 3.5 kg and its
consumption in India is going to be doubled in next four years as it is replacing conventional materials
like metals, glass, wood and paper. Around 23% of the plastic materials in India are being used in
packaging in the form of films, pouches, carry bags, and containers, etc. In the case of thin films and
carry bags, their collection and recycling have become a cause of concern for the government and non-
government organizations. Plastics do not degrade and decompose naturally. Plastic materials, set under
the earth, could remain same in the soil up to 300 years. So, the plastic waste management is an important
issue in both developed and developing countries nowadays [1-6]. Organic wastes, such as used rubber
[7, 8] and plastic [9-11] are among the waste materials that represent problematic wastes on one hand and
valuable potential as secondary raw materials on the other hand. To alleviate part of our energy crisis and
environmental degradation, it has become imperative to make use of appropriate technologies for
recovery of resources from plastic waste. Many researchers are being carried to develop technologies for
the recycling of plastic waste due to declining landfill capacity as well as increasing cost of petroleum
products. Mechanical recycling is most preferable, however, plastic waste must be homogeneous and
uncontaminated for this recycling. The incineration is the simplest and most effective method for
recovering energy, however, heat recovery is not appropriate from entropic aspect. An alternative to the
incineration is pyrolysis or gasification, which have been studied extensively [12-15] and many patents
exist in these fields.
Thermal plasma technology has been under active development for a long time [16]. The technology is
now well established in metallurgical processing, materials synthesis etc. [17-19]. By far the most
important application of thermal plasma waste treatment is focused on the destruction of hazardous
wastes [20-22] rather than recycling because of economic issues. Nevertheless, in recent years, the
interest in energy and resource recovery from waste has grown significantly, and substantial research
about the use of plasmas in waste treatment has been reported in the literature.
Pyrolysis has the potential of transforming solid wastes into useful recyclable products, but
conventionally leads to a wide spectrum of pyrolysis products, which are difficult to be separated and
utilized. Recently, attention has been paid to plasma-assisted pyrolysis and plasma gasification. Guddeti
et al [23] used an inductivity coupled plasma technology for the depolymerization of the polyethylene.
Huang et al [24] used waste rubber as the raw material for production of syngas by thermal plasma
pyrolysis, and the combustible heat value of the produced gas was 5-9 MJ/m3. Tang and Huang [25]
developed a laboratory-scale capacitively coupled radio frequency (RF) plasma pyrolysis reactor for
wood and char gasification. Shuangning et al [26] developed a plasma heated laminar entrained flow
reactor in order to study the volatilization characteristics of biomass particles at flash heating rates. Corn
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stalk and wheat straw is used as a raw material. And very recently plasma pyrolysis method is employed
to recycle the metals and brominated compounds blended into printed circuit boards [27].
Plasma pyrolysis has a number of unique advantages over conventional pyrolysis. It provides high
temperature and high energy for reaction. The reaction sample is heated up to a high temperature rapidly,
and some reactions occur that do not appear in conventional pyrolysis. It is an appropriate method for
polymer pyrolysis. It also produces a gas with low tar content and high heating value, which can be
applied well to gas turbines for power generation or used as a synthesis gas for hydrogen production [25].
When carbonaceous solids are injected into plasma, they are heated up very rapidly and the volatile
matter is released and cracked giving rise to CO, H2, CH4, C2H2 and other hydrocarbons. Thus by plasma
processes carbonaceous solid can be converted into valuable gaseous fuels as demonstrated previously in
laboratory experiments [28-33].
It is therefore of considerable interest to study plastic waste pyrolysis in plasma processes for gaseous
fuel or chemical production purposes.

2. Experimental

2.1. Experimental Setup

Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show respectively the block diagram and schematic representation of the plasma arc
pyrolyser for treatment of plastic waste. Whereas the Fig. 3 shows the experimental setup of the same
which is designed, developed and installed at the Thermal Engineering Laboratory, Central Mechanical
Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur, with an installed capacity of 20 kg/hr of feed plastic waste in a
continuous operation. Basic dimensions and operating conditions of the system are described in Table 1.

Fig. 1. Block diagram of the Plasma pyrolyser system

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Fig. 2. Schematic representation of the plastic waste plasma arc pyrolyser

Fig. 3. Experimental setup of plastic waste plasma arc pyrolyser

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Table 1. Basic dimensions and operating condition of the Plasma Pyrolyser

Name of the Unit Dimensions/quantity/capacity

Gasifier dimensions: Height 1000 mm
At the top Outer diameter 600 mm
Inner diameter: 400 mm
At the bottom Outer diameter 450 mm
Inner diameter: 250 mm
Screw feeder (1 No.) 1 HP variable speed DC
Graphite electrode (3 Nos.) 34 mm dia. each and 1500 mm long
Carbon electrode 400 mm x 120 mm x 50 mm
Thermocouples (temp.C) 3 Nos., S-Type
Reactor wall temp. measured- 1400C
Transformer Output 100 v x 300 Amp
ID fan- capacity 2.85 m3/hr, 100 mm wc- total head
Feed rate of plastic waste 20 Kg/hr.
 M. Puncochr et al. / Procedia Engineering 42 (2012) 420 430 425

2.1.1. Feed-section
This section contains a two feed hoppers and the connecting mechanism to the plasma gasifier. The
first bigger hopper is used to temporarily store the feed plastic waste and provide an intermittent supply to
the second hopper. The second smaller hopper is used to provide a continuous supply of plastic waste
feed to the gasifier. The connecting mechanism contains a screw conveyor operated by a gearbox, which
carries the plastic waste from the second hopper to the gasifier. The feed rate can be adjusted by
controlling the speed of the conveyor by means of a control knob.

2.1.2. Pyrolyser/Reactor:
The plasma arc pyrolyser heart of the system consists of a cylindrical chamber with a tapering bottom
half. It consists of three graphite electrodes, acting as cathode, which are connected to a high current
source. Pyrolyser is made of SS with double layer wall. Refractory material is packed in between the
inner and outer wall of the pyrolyser to prevent the loss of heat. Graphite and carbon electrodes have been
fixed inside the gasifier in such a way so that supply of voltage through transformer generates high
temperature at the sparking zone. Carbon electrode (-ve) is fixed upon a tripod arrangement at the bottom
of the gasifier and the graphite electrode is fixed at the top of gasifier. Graphite electrodes with male-
female threads are used. The gap in between the electrodes is adjusted through a lead screw arrangement
to facilitate the continuous arc discharge. Three numbers of Pt / Pt-Rh thermocouple are placed in the
reactor to measure the temperature of the reactor from wall to near core area. There is a provision of view
port at the side of the gasifier to visualize the high temperature zone inside the gasifier. There is a
provision of slag removal system at the bottom of the gasifier. The outlet of the slag removal system is
placed under a water pot.
The plastic waste beads are gasified at high arc temperature and a combustible gas resembling a
synthetic natural gas is produced. The syngas generated is passed through a water scrubber for cleaning
and quenching the hot syngas. An ID fan is used to draw the syngas from the reactor. Water scrubber is
used in between the gasifier and ID fan.

2.1.3. Gas cleaning and cooling:

The gas formed due to gasification was at a high temperature and contained different unwanted
particulates. Hence it was necessary to clean and cool it before safe collection or discharge. The hot gas
was passed through a tower where water was sprayed from the top. The conduit carrying the gas enters
the tower at the middle and moves downward towards the bottom where the gas is finally released. This
enables the gas to get a sufficient time for cooling before coming in contact with the water, and hence
formation of mist is avoided. The water is sprayed from the top at a point, which is below the gas outlet
so that water may not bypass the tower and does not go to the further sections directly. The flow of the
gas was maintained by an ID fan, which continuously sucks the gas, thereby maintaining a downward
potential. The syngas is passed through a gas filtering arrangement before ID fan to arrest the tar or
unburned materials. A hole with an arrangement of silicon rubber septum is provided in the product gas
pipe before ID fan for collection & chemical analysis of syngas in Gas Chromatograph. The gas was
ultimately passed to a burner, where by the generating a spark with the help of spark producer, the gas
was ignited and flared off.
The plasma gasifier was preheated to a temperature of 1200C before feed plastic waste was
introduced in it. The purpose of preheating is to remove the residual moisture from the furnace and easy
to gasify the feeding plastic waste. During the experiment, it was necessary to continuously maintain the
electric arc, and thereby, the high temperature. The graphite electrodes were continuously eroded and
hence the cathodes were periodically adjusted, by moving them vertically through control panel, so as to
426 M. Puncochr et al. / Procedia Engineering 42 (2012) 420 430

maintain the constant small gap between the anode and the cathodes. Water spraying was initially started
before the hot gas reached the tower.

2.2. Analytical equipment

The elemental analysis with regard to carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen of plastic waste has been carried
out in CHN Analyser (Make: Perkin Elmer, Model: 2400 Series II).
Produced syngas has been analyzed by a gas-chromatograph (Model: GC-1000) from Thermo Fisher
Scientific. Gas sample has been collected from the port of the product gas pipe by using a gas tight
syringe (Hamilton made). Hydrogen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, carbon dioxide has been identified by
using TCD. Hydrocarbons (saturated and unsaturated) have been identified by using FID. For
identification of above gases, TCD and FID have been configured which are as follows:

2.2.1. GC Configuration

2.2.1.1. Detector: TCD

x Column for TCD: Spherocarb measuring as well as reference (Mesh size: 80/100, length 6 ft, dia-1/8
inch, max temp- 225C)
x Flow: 30 ml/min in both meas. and ref. at pressure flow B1- 0.8 bar and Flow B2 -1.2 bar
x Temp: Oven-70C, B Inj 100C, B TCD-150C, TCD range 0, TCD voltage-5 V, Max current-140
MA, Polarity: - ve
x Peak: H2, N2, CO, CH4, CO2
x Carrier gas: Argon

2.2.1.2. Detector: FID

x Column for FID: Porapakq (Mesh size: 80/100, length-8 ft, dia. 1/8 inch, max. temp.- 250C)
x Flow: 30 ml/min at carrier pressure 2 bar, H2 30 ml/min 1.6 bar, air 300 ml/min 0.8 bar
x Temp: Oven-100C, B Inj 120C, C FID 225C, Range 1
x Peak: CH4, C3H4, C2H6, C3H8, C4H10
x Carrier gas: Argon

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Performance study

Performance study of the developed plasma pyrolyser has been carried out with the plastic waste as
feeding material. The major gas components of the product gas are hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane,
acetylene, ethylene and other hydrocarbons, which are combustible in nature. After the pyrolysis
experiments, an inspection of the reactor surface revealed that it was almost free of residue; it seems
almost no tar was produced in the plasma pyrolysis of plastic waste. This process should be of significant
advantage over other conventional pyrolysis methods. The product gas from plasma pyrolysis may be
suitable for syngas applications. It could also be suitable for use in fuel cells after the gas is further
cleaned and processed. It is suitable for use as a fuel gas for turbines or gas engines.
The typical results of CHN analysis of raw plastic waste indicate the presence of carbon, hydrogen and
nitrogen and their percentage are as follows: C: 72.47, H: 11.9 and N: 4.28. The mean calorific value was
found to be 43.5 MJ/kg.
 M. Puncochr et al. / Procedia Engineering 42 (2012) 420 430 427

Gas-chromatographic TCD analysis of product gas indicated the presence of CO, H 2, CH4 and trace
CO2 and NH3, NO It is clear that due to very high temperature of the plasma pyrolysis process in
reducing environment, the plastic waste is cracking and is producing this gas mixture. Basically the
plastic is a combination of C and H2 molecules and trace amount of N2, oxygen and some additives. FID
analysis (Fig.4) of product gas indicated the presence of CH4, C2H6, C3H8, C4H10, C2H4, C2H2 and trace of
other hydrocarbons.
Table-2 indicates the presence of metals in the slag sample. Neutron Activation Analysis of slag
sample indicated the presence of different types of elements though the values are trace except the value
of Ca, Mg and Al. Presence of these elements in the slag sample indicates that these elements are present
in the raw plastic waste. These elements may add as additive in the plastic during manufacturing. Fig.5
shows the slag sample, which is grey in color and looks like powder with very small lump.

Fig. 4. FID chromatogram of syngas

Table 2, Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) results of slag sample

Sl. No. Element ppm

1. V 157.39
2. Al 25987.25
3. Cl 14943
4. Na 7231.64
5. Ca 185872.87
6. S 0.00
7. Co-60M 17.68
8. Ti-51 7111.87
9. Mg-27 15161.93
10. Dy 1.75
11. Ba 2863.69
12. Sr 213.60
13. K 8420.46
14. Mn 1354.08
428 M. Puncochr et al. / Procedia Engineering 42 (2012) 420 430

Fig..5. Slag sample

3.2. Techno-economic study

Costing are in Rs. ie, INR, 1$ ~ 48 INR.

It is observed from the experimental study that 1 kg/hr plastic requires roughly 1 kW e power in a
plasma gasifier. The calorific value of plastic is 43.5 MJ/kg. If the overall efficiency of conversion is 30
% then the output electrical energy is 13.05 MJ, which is equivalent to 3.6 kW e for 1 kg/hr plastic
conversion. Considering 1.2 kWe for auxiliary power requirement the net recovery is 2.4 kW e or Rs. 7.0
(approx).
For a 1 TPD unit:
x Operating costs: Rs. 1000.00 per day
x Capital cost recovery (2 yrs): Rs 3000.00 per day
x Interest on capital costs: Rs. 360.00 per day
x Maintenance: Rs. 500.00 per day
x Total: Rs. 4860.00 per day
x The recovery is Rs. 7000.00 per day
x Net Gain is Rs. 2140.00 per day for a 1 TPD plant.

So, the techno-economics of this study reveals that the developed plasma pyrolysis of plastic waste
treatment is very attractive. PCDD/F compounds are not expected to be present in the syngas from
gasifier for two reasons. First, the high temperatures in the gasification process destroy any dioxin or
furan compounds or precursors in the feed. Secondly, the reducing environment precludes the formation
of free chlorine from HCl, thereby limiting chlorination of any species in the syngas. So, from pollution
emissions point of view this system is also acceptable. The reactor wall temperature was measured up to
1500C with the help of S-type thermocouple. We could not measure the core temperature of the reactor
due to not availability of the high temperature-measuring instrument. Plasma pyrolysis consistently
exhibits much lower environmental levels for air emissions than other thermal technologies.

4. Conclusions

The present study reveals that there is a great potential for development of thermal plasma pyrolysis
technologies applicable to plastic waste disposal management with energy and material recovery. The
demonstration plasma arc plastic waste pyrolyser unit showed that the prospective of the technology
 M. Puncochr et al. / Procedia Engineering 42 (2012) 420 430 429

under investigation is significant for hazardous plastic waste treatment. Although important experimental
studies have been carried out in recent years, there are still considerable technical challenges to be faced
in developing and modifying thermal plasma pyrolysis process for industrial applications. Apart from the
experimental investigation, kinetic modeling and simulation is required to describe the plasma pyrolysis
mathematically. There is a great scope of study in modeling and simulation of plasma pyrolysis to design
a suitable plasma pyrolysis reactor.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Joint Research Project under ASCR, Czech
Republic and CSIR, India - bilateral S&T Program (Plastic waste disposal and generation of synthetic
natural gas, 20092011).

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