The kinetics of typical medical waste pyrolysis based on gaseous evolution behaviour in a micro-fluidised bed reactor

Abstract

In order to obtain the kinetic parameters during typical medical waste pyrolysis, the typical medical waste is pyrolysed in a micro-fluidised bed reactor. The gases evolved from the typical medical waste pyrolysis are analysed by a mass spectrometer, and only H₂, CH₄, C₂H₂, C₂H₄, C₂H₆, C₃H₆, C₃H₈ and C₄H₄ are observed. According to the gaseous product concentration profiles, the activation energies of gaseous formation are calculated based on the Friedman approach, and the average activation energies of H₂, CH₄, C₂H₂, C₂H₄, C₂H₆, C₃H₆, C₃H₈ and C₄H₄ formation during typical medical waste pyrolysis are in sequence as 65.10, 39.98, 35.17, 38.71, 40.75, 41.79, 58.57 and 63.95 kJ mol⁻¹. Moreover, the activation energy with respect to the gases mixture formation is 52.70 kJ mol⁻¹. Hence, it is concluded that the activation energy of typical medical waste pyrolysis is 52.70 kJ mol⁻¹. The model-fitting method is used to determine the mechanism model of medical waste pyrolysis. The results indicate that the chemical reaction (n = 1) model (G(x) = –ln(1–x)) is the optimum.