Abstract

The aim of this work was to design an autoclave recycling reactor for the depolymerization of polypropylene from plastic waste. Performance evaluation model of the reactor was developed via the application of Fourier's law of heat transfer, step growth polymerization principles, polymer chain scissoring principles and the principle of heat balance for chemical reactive systems functional in production of propylene from waste plastics. The system is been simulated using MATLAB. The parameters simulated was depolymerization performance of PP-Concentration, P-concentration, process operating temperature, space time of the autoclave system as well as it's Dispersity rate. The results from the MATLAB simulation shows that the Dispersity of PP to P increased proportionally to decrease in the PP reaction rate. The results also showed that the PP-concentration fell massively with a gradual but spontaneous increase in the P - formation and space time of the system. Also, as the process space time increased to 0.45hr, the entire process in the reactor occurred with increase in the process heat up to the range above 4.0969x102K. This gave rise to high yield in propylene from a defined volume of waste plastics.

Keywords

  • Kinetics
  • MATLAB
  • Organic wastes
  • Wastes to wealth
  • Pyrolysis
  • Material Balance
  • Energy balance
  • -scission
  • Polymers

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