Effect of Sodium Chloride and Thiourea on Pollutant Formation during Combustion of Plastics

María E. Iñiguez, Juan A. Conesa and Andrés Fullana
Additional contact information
María E. Iñiguez: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Alicante, P.O. Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain
Juan A. Conesa: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Alicante, P.O. Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain
Andrés Fullana: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Alicante, P.O. Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 8, 1-11

Abstract: Thermal decomposition of different samples containing a mixture of plastics (polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and nylon) combined with NaCl and metal oxides (Fe 2 O 3 , CuO) was studied under an air atmosphere at 850 °C using a reactor, followed by analysis of the evolved products. Combustion runs were performed to study how the presence of such compounds influences the production of pollutants. Here, we report the analyses of the emissions of the main gases, as well as volatiles and semivolatiles, including polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated benzenes and phenols, and polybrominated phenols. Results show that the production of chlorinated pollutants did not increase in the presence of NaCl, but the presence of other metals during the decomposition led to the production of a great amount of pollutants. In this regard, the emission of chlorinated phenols increased from 110 to ca. 250 mg/kg when the sample included a small quantity of a transition metal oxide. Additionally, the presence of an inhibitor—thiourea (TUA)—was tested. Results confirm that adding TUA to the sample reduced these emissions to a considerable extent, with the emission of chlorinated phenols amounting to 65 mg/kg.

Keywords: plastic mixture; PAHs; ClBzs; NaCl; catalyzed medium; inhibition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/8/2014/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/8/2014/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:8:p:2014-:d:161580

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().