Temperature Distribution of the Plastics Pyrolysis Process to Produce Fuel at 450oC

This paper aims to investigate the temperature distribution in the reactor of a plastics pyrolysis process from waste bottles of beverage to produce fuel. This process is considered an alternative technology to replace fossil fuel. This experiment was conducted using a cylindrical reactor, which has dimension of 0.31 m in diameter and 1 m high. In order to understand the temperature distribution in the reactor, five thermocouples were placed to measure temperature at the bottom and the top of the reactor as well as in the middle, with the different position of each thermocouple of 0.19 m respectively. The temperature outside the reactor and outside the condenser was also measured. Data Acquisition recorded all temperature data. The reactor was used to process 1,500 g plastics. The Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) was also used to know the contour of temperature inside the reactor. The result showed that to increase temperature from the ambient temperature to 450oC, 72 minutes of time were needed. The lowest temperature of 310 °C was measured at the top of the reactor, whereas different temperature in the middle of the reactor was found to be 46 °C respectively. The pyrolysis process of 1,500 g plastics was completed in 110 minutes to produce 21 g of fuel. This fact shows that the pyrolysis process of plastics can produce fuel at 450oC in the reactor and 75oC outside the reactor.