Plastics are integral to nearly every aspect of modern life, but such widespread use has generated massive amounts of plastic waste. Current recycling methods have been largely ineffective, so significant improvements could be made to reduce waste and enable a plastic ‘circular economy.’ Pyrolysis techniques have the potential to achieve this goal. Using the Pulse-Heated Analysis of Solid Reactions (PHASR) system, plastic pyrolysis kinetics can be observed under isothermal, reaction-controlled conditions, allowing intrinsic reaction kinetics to be measured. A second, Visual PHASR system is capable of capturing high-speed footage for visual confirmation of reaction phenomena that have previously only been hypothesized. Because polyethylene (PE) and its variants (e.g., LDPE, HDPE) constitute a plurality of plastics currently being produced, and are especially prominent in often discarded single-use plastics, it is of interest to apply PHASR techniques to PE pyrolysis in order to identify its intrinsic decomposition kinetics. Fully understanding its kinetic behavior will pave the way toward industrial reactor development and much more efficient large-scale plastic recycling. This presentation will validate the application of PHASR to PE pyrolysis, illustrate newly-observed reaction phenomena, and highlight initial kinetic results.

Polyethylene pyrolysis by pulse-heated analysis of solid reactions (PHASR): Pathway to a circular plastic economy

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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