Determination of activation energy of pyrolysis of carton packaging wastes and its pure components using thermogravimetry

• Published in: Waste management (Elmsford) Vol. 53; pp. 68 - 75
• Main Authors: Alvarenga, Larissa M., Xavier, Thiago P., Barrozo, Marcos Antonio S., Bacelos, Marcelo S., Lira, Taisa S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Ltd 01-07-2016
• Subjects: Carton packaging; Cartons; Devolatilization; Food Packaging; Incineration - methods; Mathematical models; Packaging; Polyethylenes; Pyrolysis; Reaction kinetics; Recycling; Thermogravimetric analysis; Thermogravimetry; Waste Products; Wastes; Pyrolysis; Carton packaging; Thermogravimetric analysis; DTG; IPR; Recycling; TGA
• ISSN: 0956-053X; 1879-2456
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2016.04.015

•The pyrolysis reactions were studied by TGA and estimation of kinetic parameters.•Carton packaging pyrolysis follows three stages of devolatilization in DTG curves.•The activation energies estimated were similar for carton packaging and cardboard.
Many processes have been used for recycling of carton packaging wastes. The pyrolysis highlights as a promising technology to be used for recovering the aluminum from polyethylene and generating products with high heating value. In this paper, a study on pyrolysis reactions of carton packaging wastes and its pure components was performed in order to estimate the kinetic parameters of these reactions. For this, dynamic thermogravimetric analyses were carried out and two different kinds of kinetic models were used: the isoconversional and Independent Parallel Reactions. Isoconversional models allowed to calculate the overall activation energy of the pyrolysis reaction, in according to their conversions. The IPR model, in turn, allowed the calculation of kinetic parameters of each one of the carton packaging and paperboard subcomponents. The carton packaging pyrolysis follows three separated stages of devolatilization. The first step is moisture loss. The second stage is perfectly correlated to devolatilization of cardboard. The third step is correlated to devolatilization of polyethylene.