Thermochemical treatment of E-waste from small household appliances using highly pre-heated nitrogen-thermogravimetric investigation and pyrolysis kinetics

The EU directive on waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) 2002/96/EC has set a goal of recovering 70–80% in terms of materials and energy. Nowadays, thermal cracking (pyrolysis) of such waste streams is receiving renewed attention, due to the energy and material recovery that can be achieved and therefore the sustainable waste management. However, it still lacks the kinetic background which is of great importance for a successful design of thermochemical processes. In this study the kinetic parameters of WEEE (originating from small household appliances) pyrolysis using highly pre-heated nitrogen under six different heating rates (1–2.5 K/s) have been estimated using a combination of model-free and model fitted methods. Even though WEEE is heterogeneous material, similar behavior at each of the six different heating rates applied was observed. The activation energy of the pyrolysis process determined with two different model-free methods gave comparable results. Pre-exponential factor and reaction order were determined using the Coats-Redfern method. The estimated kinetic parameters for the WEEE pyrolysis are: E = 95.54 kJ/mol, A = 1.06 × 108 and n = 3.38.