Improvement of Volumetric Flow Rate of Biodiesel Oil from Waste Plastics Pyrolysis Plant for Biodiesel Recovery using Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

The present study deals with the effect of input (independable) variables: reactor inlet temperature, production time, inlet pressure, and heating rate on the dependable variables: volumetric flowrate, and product yield from the waste plastic pyrolysis plant as well as their optimization. The experiment was designed with Central composite design (CCD) at a time of production of 43 – 60 minutes, an inlet temperature of 310 – 500⁰C, an inlet pressure of 2 – 2.5 bar and a heating rate of 5 - 50⁰C/min. The result showed a product yield of 87.3% and a volumetric flow rate of 1.17 m³/s at the production time of 54 minutes, 360⁰C inlet temperature, 2.35 bar inlet pressure, and 20 min/C heating rate. From the optimization study, the operating parameters that affected the increase in volumetric flow rate and product yield were reactor inlet temperature, production time, inlet pressure, and heating rate. Increasing the reactor inlet temperature, pressure, heating rate, and time of production results increase in the yield of petroleum products from the waste plastics pyrolysis plant and the volumetric rate. The optimal values of the results were: the inlet temperature to the reactor, inlet pressure, heating rate, and production time were 379.278⁰C, 2.419 bar, 58.375 minutes, and 23.363 min./^oC, respectively. The product yield and the volumetric flow rate were 83.580% and 0.966 lit./hr, respectively. The input capacity to the waste plastics pyrolysis plant was discovered to be 2kg/hr of thermoplastics. The diesel range hydrocarbons obtained from the plant were C₁₀-C₁₃