Recycling of Plastic Waste, with Particular Emphasis on Thermal Methods—Review

Agnieszka Kijo-Kleczkowska and Adam Gnatowski
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Agnieszka Kijo-Kleczkowska: Department of Thermal Machinery, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, Czestochowa University of Technology, 42-201 Czestochowa, Poland
Adam Gnatowski: Department of Technology and Automation, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, Czestochowa University of Technology, 42-201 Czestochowa, Poland

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-21

Abstract: The civilization development requires improvement of technologies and satisfaction of people’s needs on the one side, but on the other one it is directly connected with the increasing production of waste. In this paper, the authors dealt with the second of these aspects, reviewing the recycling of plastic waste, which can be processed without changing its chemical structure (mechanical recycling), and with changing its chemical structure (chemical recycling, of which thermal recycling). Mechanical recycling involves shredding the waste in order to obtain recyclate or regranulate that meets specific quality requirements. Chemical recycling consists of the degradation of the material into low-molecular compounds, and it can take place in the processes of hydrolysis, glycolysis, methanolysis by means of chemical solvents, and during thermal processes of hydrocracking, gasification, pyrolysis, combustion, enabling the recovery of gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons foundings in application as a fuel in the energy and cement-lime industry and enabling the recovery of thermal energy contained in plastics. The paper focuses on thermal methods of plastics recycling that become more important due to legal regulations limiting the landfilling of waste. The authors also took up the properties of plastics and their production in European conditions.

Keywords: plastics; waste; thermal properties; management; recycling; pyrolysis; gasification; combustion (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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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