As society searches for alternatives to fossil fuels for meeting global energy demand, the importance of processes utilizing biomass have come to the forefront. Additionally, accumulation of waste is a global issue, particularly for materials such as plastics and tires that do not naturally degrade and pose threats to environmental health. In this project, we investigated co-pyrolysis of biomass with waste plastics and tires as a way to address both issues outlined above. Co-pyrolysis of these materials showed a synergistic relationship, resulting in the products of pyrolysis (e.g. bio-oil) having a higher fuel grade.
The findings of this project have been published in 3 peer-reviewed manuscripts linked below:
- Singh, M., Salaudeen, S.A., Gilroyed, B.H., Al-Salem, S.M., and A. Dutta. (2021). A review on co-pyrolysis of biomass with plastics and tires: recent progress, catalyst development, and scaling up potential. Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery 13, 8747-8771. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-01818-x
- Singh, M., Salaudeen, S.A., Gilroyed, B.H., and A. Dutta. (2022). Simulation of biomass-plastic co-gasification in a fluidized bed reactor using Aspen plus. Fuel 319, 123708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2022.123708
- Singh, M., Salaudeen, Norouzi, O., S.A., Al-Salem, S.M., Gilroyed, B.H., and A. Dutta. (2023). Co-pyrolysis of biomass and tires using commercial zeolite and biochar-based catalyst. Chemical Engineering and Processing – Process Intensification 187, 109356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2023.109356