Khatibi, M., Nahil, M.A. and Williams, P.T. orcid.org/0000-0003-0401-9326 (2025) Pyrolysis/Non-thermal Plasma/Catalysis Processing of Refuse-Derived Fuel for Upgraded Oil and Gas Production. Waste and Biomass Valorization. ISSN 1877-2641
Abstract
Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) produced from the processing of municipal solid waste (MSW) has a high content of biomass and plastics. Pyrolysis of RDF produces a bio-oil which is highly oxygenated, viscous, acidic with a high moisture content and unsuitable for direct use in conventional combustion systems and consequently requires upgrading. A novel process of pyrolysis with non-thermal plasma/catalysis has been developed to produce de-oxygenated bio-oils and gases from RDF. The volatiles from the pyrolysis stage are passed directly to a non-thermal plasma/catalytic reactor where upgrading of the pyrolysis volatiles takes place. Detailed analysis of the product oils and gases is presented in relation to process conditions and in the presence of different catalysts (TiO₂, MCM-41, ZSM-5, and Al₂O₃). Even in the absence of a catalyst, the presence of the non-thermal plasma resulted in high yields of CO and CO₂ gases and reduced bio-oil oxygen content, confirming deoxygenation of the RDF pyrolysis volatiles. The addition of catalysts MCM-41 and ZSM-5 generated the highest yields of CO, CO₂, and H₂ due to the synergy between catalyst and plasma. The catalysts ranked in terms of total oxygenated oil yield are as follows: MCM-41 < ZSM-5 < TiO₂ < Al₂O₃. Pyrolysis of RDF produces an oil containing oxygenated species from biomass and hydrocarbon species from plastics. The non-thermal plasma generates high energy electrons which generate radicals and intermediates from the pyrolysis volatiles which synergistically interact with the catalysts to enable deoxygenation of the oxygenated hydrocarbons through decarboxylation and decarbonylation reactions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Biomass; Plastics; Refuse; Derived fuel (RDF); Non; Thermal plasma; Pyrolysis; Bio; Oil |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 Feb 2025 10:01 |
Last Modified: | 05 Feb 2025 10:01 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s12649-024-02866-w |
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Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:222873 |