Świechowski Kacper, Zafiu Christian, Białowiec Andrzej
Department of Applied Bioeconomy, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 37a Chełmońskiego Str., 51-630 Wrocław, Poland.
Department of Water, Atmosphere and Environment, Institute of Waste Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 107, 1190 Wien, Austria.
Materials (Basel). 2021 Nov 20;14(22):7051. doi: 10.3390/ma14227051.
The quantity of biodegradable plastics is increasing steadily and taking a larger share in the residual waste stream. As the calorific value of biodegradable plastic is almost two-fold lower than that of conventional ones, its increasing quantity decreases the overall calorific value of municipal solid waste and refuse-derived fuel which is used as feedstock for cement and incineration plants. For that reason, in this work, the torrefaction of biodegradable waste, polylactic acid (PLA), and paper was performed for carbonized solid fuel (CSF) production. In this work, we determined the process yields, fuel properties, process kinetics, theoretical energy, and mass balance. We show that the calorific value of PLA cannot be improved by torrefaction, and that the process cannot be self-sufficient, while the calorific value of paper can be improved up to 10% by the same process. Moreover, the thermogravimetric analysis revealed that PLA decomposes in one stage at ~290-400 °C with a maximum peak at 367 °C, following a 0.42 reaction order with the activation energy of 160.05 kJ·(mol·K).
可生物降解塑料的数量正在稳步增加，并在残余废物流中占据更大的份额。由于可生物降解塑料的热值几乎比传统塑料低两倍，其数量的增加降低了城市固体废物和用作水泥及焚烧厂原料的垃圾衍生燃料的总体热值。因此，在这项工作中，对可生物降解废物、聚乳酸（PLA）和纸张进行了烘焙处理以生产碳化固体燃料（CSF）。在这项工作中，我们确定了工艺产率、燃料特性、工艺动力学、理论能量和质量平衡。我们表明，烘焙处理无法提高PLA的热值，且该工艺无法实现自给自足，而通过相同工艺纸张的热值可提高高达10%。此外，热重分析表明，PLA在约290 - 400°C的一个阶段分解，最大峰值在367°C，反应级数为0.42，活化能为160.05 kJ·(mol·K)。
