Study on thermal co-pyrolysis of jatropha deoiled cake and polyolefins

Three plastics, high density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS), were individually co-pyrolysed with deoiled cake of jatropha (JC) at 400 and 450°C in a batch reactor in the presence of nitrogen under atmospheric pressure to produce modified liquid fractions. At higher temperature (450°C), the yield of liquid fractions by the pyrolysis of plastics (HDPE, PP and PS) alone was found to increase by 11, 12.5 and 11% for HDPE, PP and PS, respectively. Furthermore, the gaseous fraction increased by 1.3 to 2.6% while the residue generation reduced by 12.3 to 15.1%. In comparison with only plastics pyrolysis, the yield of the liquid fraction improved by 2.0 to 4.9% for their co-pyrolysis with JC. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analyses demonstrated that the co-processing afforded a reduction of paraffin and olefins in the liquid fractions for all of the experiments. This reduction was found to be in the order of PS > PP > HDPE. Furthermore, the proportion of oxygenates in the liquid product increased in the order of PP > HDPE > PS. Physical characteristics such as oxygenates, water contents, acid values and viscosity increased during the co-pyrolysis of plastics and JC in contrast to the liquid fractions obtained from the pyrolysis of pure plastics. Furthermore, co-pyrolysis offered a reduction in calorific values.