Browsing by Author "Striūgas, Nerijus"

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Effect of aluminum leaching pretreatment on catalytic pyrolysis of metallised food packaging plastics and its linear and nonlinear kinetic behaviour
(Elsevier, 2022-07-05) Yousef, Samy; Eimontas, Justas; Striūgas, Nerijus; Abdelnaby, Mohammed Ali
This research aims to study the effect of aluminum (Al) leaching pre-treatment on the catalytic pyrolysis of metallised food packaging plastics waste (MFPW). The experiments started with removal of Al from MFPW using leaching process to prepare Al-free mixed plastic waste (MPW). The catalytic pyrolysis of MPW over ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst was carried out using thermogravimetric (TG) analysis coupled with FTIR, while GC–MS was used to observe the compounds of the volatile products. The catalytic pyrolysis kinetic behaviour of MPW was studied using the linear and nonlinear isoconversional approaches. The elemental and proximate results showed that MPW is very rich in carbon elements (79 %) and volatile content (99 %). The TG results showed that MPW and ZSM/MPW were fully decomposed in the range of 376–496 °C without any presence of char. Based on TG-FTIR analysis, methane and carboxylic acid residue were the main groups of the synthesized volatile products, whereas nitrous oxide, 1-Butanol, 1-Propene, acetic acid, and formic acid were the major GC compounds. In case of ZSM/MPW, carbon dioxide and acetic acid were the major GC compounds at 5–25 °C/min, triphenylphosphine oxide and Phosphine oxide at 30 °C/min. The kinetic analysis showed that when the activation energies are located in the range 287–297 kJ/mol (MPW) and 153–187 kJ/mol (ZSM/MPW) and KAS, Vyazovkin, and Cai methods are the most suitable models to study pyrolysis kinetic of MPW with R2 > 89. Based on that, leaching and catalytic pyrolysis processes are a highly suggested technol- ogy that can be used to convert MFPW into high-added energy and chemical products.
Phenol and benzoic acid recovery from end-of-life of polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes and its thermochemical kinetic behaviour
(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2023-05) Yousef, Samy; Eimontas, Justas; Striūgas, Nerijus; Mohamed, Alaa; Praspaliauskas, Marius; Abdelnaby, Mohammed Ali
The remarkable properties of polysulfone (PSF) membranes have contributed to their use in many ultrafiltration applications. Meanwhile, this huge usage of PSF films and its short service life have generated a huge amount of waste PSF films that need to be managed carefully. Within this framework, this is the first research specifically developed to valorize the end-of-life of PSF membranes and convert them into high-value chemical and energy products using pyrolysis treatment. The treatment was performed using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA), while the structure and abundance of the phenol and benzoic acid compounds in the generated vapor were determined using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC- MS). Thermogravimetric recorded data at different conditions (5–30°C/min) was subjected to linear and nonlinear models including KAS, FWO, Friedman, Vyazovkin, and Cai to assess the pyrolytic kinetic behavior of PSF films. The films showed higher content of volatile matter (57%), lower NOx emissions (0.321%), and a little bit more SOX emission (6.909%). The GC-MS showed that the pyrolytic gaseous products are rich in phenol (24.3%) and benzoic acid (52.4%) compounds and the highest abundance was achieved at 30°C/min. Whereas activation energies were estimated in the range of 193–240 kJ/mol based on linear kinetic criteria versus 161–163 kJ/mol in the case of nonlinear models, where R2 values (>0.91) indicated perfection. Also, distributed activation energy and independent parallel reaction kinetic models showed a good fit with the TGA-DTG experimental data with the minimum deviation. The study con- firmed the potential of pyrolysis treatment in converting wasted PSF films into a new source for the recovery of phenolic and benzoic acid. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 20 March 2023 Revised 27 April 2023 Accepted 2 May 2023
Recovery of phenol and acetic acid from glass fibre reinforced thermoplastic resin using catalytic pyrolysis process on ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst and its kinetic behaviour
(Elsevier, 2022-07-16) Yousef, Samy; Kiminaitė, Ieva; Eimontas, Justas; Striūgas, Nerijus; Abdelnaby, Mohammed Ali
Glass fibre-reinforced thermoplastic (GFRP) is the composite material of choice for engineers to improve their design, save expenses, and achieve sustainability goals, what leads to generation of a big quantity of GFRP waste (during production or as an end-life-product) that needs to be disposed of safely. In order to valorise GFRP waste, this research aims to recover phenol and acetic acid as high-added value chemical and energy products from the millions of tons of GFRP waste produced annually during the catalytic pyrolysis process. The experiments were performed on glass fibre-reinforced poly(methyl methacrylate)-PMMA (GF/PM) as a common and commercial thermoplastic resin in five stages. In the first stage, the thermal decomposition of the milled feedstock over different percentages of ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst to feedstock in the ranges 0.5-5 wt.% (w/w) was performed using TGA. The generated volatile products from TGA were analysed using TG-FTIR and GC/MS in the second and third stages, respectively. The fourth stage was used to study the kinetic behaviour of catalytic pyrolysis of the feedstock with different catalysts and at different heating conditions using isoconversional models. In the last stage, the experimental thermal decomposition curves were simulated numerically. The results showed that ZSM/GF/PM can decompose significantly in the ranges 320-460 ˚C. Meanwhile, 2 wt.% of catalyst-to-GF/PM ratio was sufficient to recover more than 48% of phenol, 23% of acetic acid, 19% carbon dioxide compounds at 30˚C/min with high intensity of aromatic benzene. Also, this batch gave a higher kinetic complexity in terms of activation energy in the ranges 100-200 kJ/mol (linear models) and 230-440 kJ/mol (nonlinear models). These results confirm that involvement of 2 wt.% ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst in the pyrolysis of GF/PM has a big impact on the formulated volatile components and their potential upscaling.