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Advanced Studies in Thermochemical Conversion of Solid Wastes into Energy Products

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B: Energy and Environment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2024 | Viewed by 686

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Engineering and Technology, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Australia
Interests: thermodynamics; energy (renewable, industrial and building energy); thermofluid engineering; power plants and process industries; biofuel and energy conversion (combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, fluidization, etc.); biodiesel and diesel engine performance and emission testing; energy, water, and environmental sustainability
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Disposal of solid waste without adequate treatment generates significant environmental pollution. An environmentally acceptable way of managing solid waste is an important issue for 21st-century urban waste management in both developed and developing countries. Solid waste is not a waste anymore, but rather a source of renewable energy. Numerous works are available exploring waste to energy (WtE) technology for converting solid waste into energy. Solid wastes can be (i) biomass or biogenic (plant or animal products), (ii) material such as paper, cardboard, food waste, grass clippings, leaves, wood, and leather products, and (iii) non-biomass combustible material such as plastics and other synthetic materials made from petroleum. WtE technology plays an important role in the urban waste hierarchy, making better use of waste that would otherwise be sent to the landfill. This involves energy recovery from solid waste through various thermo-chemical conversion processes, such as gasification, pyrolysis, combustion, liquefaction, etc. The recovered energy can be used as a fuel for electricity generation. Besides recovery of significant amounts of energy, these technologies can lead to a substantial reduction in the overall waste quantities for final disposal, which can significantly minimize environmental pollution.

This Special Issue will cover thermochemical processes like pyrolysis, gasification, combustion, liquefaction, etc., for converting solid wastes such as biomass, organic waste, green waste, plastic waste, end-of-life tires, etc., into energy products such as crude oil, char, and syngas. In particular, this Special Issue will focus on assessing the performance of pyrolysis and gasification technologies for converting solid/biomass waste into energy, both experimentally and numerically. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to:

  • Potential solid waste and biomass resources;
  • Review of different types of thermochemical conversion technologies;
  • Analysis, applications, opportunities, and operational difficulties of thermochemical conversion technologies, both experimental and numerical;
  • Performance comparison of different types of thermochemical conversion technologies;
  • Market potential of medium- and large-scale thermochemical conversion plants;
  • Policies needed to promote medium- and large-scale thermochemical process plants in the energy sector.

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Rasul
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • waste to energy
  • thermochemical conversion processes
  • recovery of energy products from solid waste
  • experimental and numerical analysis of pyrolysis and gasification technologies
  • policies to promote thermochemical conversion plants for solid waste
  • analysis of market potential of waste to energy technologies

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

26 pages, 7627 KiB  
Article
Thermochemical Valorization of Plastic Waste Containing Low Density Polyethylene, Polyvinyl Chloride and Polyvinyl Butyral into Thermal and Fuel Energy
by Beata Jabłońska, Gabriela Poznańska, Paweł Jabłoński and Joanna Zwolińska
Energies 2024, 17(14), 3458; https://doi.org/10.3390/en17143458 - 13 Jul 2024
Viewed by 457
Abstract
Pyrolysis is a promising technology for transforming waste plastics (WPs) into high-value products. In the near future it will play a key role in the circular economy, as a sustainable and environmentally friendly method of managing this waste. Although the literature reports on [...] Read more.
Pyrolysis is a promising technology for transforming waste plastics (WPs) into high-value products. In the near future it will play a key role in the circular economy, as a sustainable and environmentally friendly method of managing this waste. Although the literature reports on the pyrolysis of plastics, it is focused on pure polymers. On the other hand, the state-of-the-art knowledge about the pyrolysis of mixed and contaminated WPs is still scarce. Industrial waste processing usually uses polymer mixtures containing various impurities that influence the pyrolysis process during chemical WPs recycling. In the paper the pyrolysis of three types of WPs: low density polyethylene (LDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyvinyl butyral (PVB) from repeated mechanical recycling of plastics, as well as their binary and ternary mixtures, is considered. The influence of particular components on the pyrolysis process is analyzed. The aim is to determine synergistic behavior of the mixtures during the pyrolysis process, which is important for increasing the efficiency and quality of the obtained bioproducts. Methods such as thermogravimetric (TG/DTG) analysis coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and mass spectroscopy (MS) are used. The variations in the initial and final temperature of pyrolysis, mass loss and mass loss rate are determined. The content of PVC significantly lowers the initial temperature and mass loss and increases the final temperature. The pyrolysis of the considered mixtures shows a noticeable synergism—in the initial stage of pyrolysis up to a temperature around 450 °C, the mass loss is accelerated compared to what is predicted by simple superposition. The inhomogeneity of the mixtures as well as the waste origin causes a significant variation in the activation energy. Three main conclusions are obtained: (i) if the waste does not contain PVC, the pyrolysis is nearly complete at a temperature around 500 °C at a heating rate of 10 °C/min, whereas PVC is not fully processed even at 995 °C; (ii) the synergistic effects affect significantly the pyrolysis process by accelerating some steps and lowering the activation energy; and (iii) the presence of PVC noticeably lowers the temperature of the first stage of PVB pyrolysis. The investigation results prove that chemical recycling of mixed LDPE, PVC and PVB waste can be an effective method of plastic waste management. Full article
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