Municipal Plastic Waste Composition Study at Transfer Station of Bangkok and Possibility of its Energy Recovery by Pyrolysis

The pyrolysis of waste plastic was performed based on the characterization of municipal plastic waste (MPW) from one of Bangkok city's waste transfer station. Results showed that heating value of oil product (49, 47, 43, and 42 MJ/kg, from LDPE, mixture of HDPE and LDPE, PP and HDPE, respectively) was significantly higher than that of the raw plastic waste. Yield of the oil product from the pyrolysis of LDPE was highest (60%). Energy recovery from plastic via pyrolysis was 75%, 59%, 50%, and 49% for LDPE, mixture of HDPE and LDPE, PP, and HDPE, respectively. Results from GC-MS of pyrolysis oil showed that different raw materials produced very different sets of chemical compounds, with alkanes and alkenes found in the pyrolysis oil.