Study on pyrolytic kinetics and behavior: The co-pyrolysis of microalgae and polypropylene

In the current work, the co-pyrolysis kinetics of Dunaliella tertiolecta and PP were investigated via TGA, while TG-FTIR and TG-MS were used for the analysis of gas-phase components and volatiles transition. The TGA results show that PP with certain small particle size accelerates the pyrolysis process of the microalgae, while the existence of D. tertiolecta delayed that of PP. This significant interaction achieves maximum when mass ratio of PP and D. tertiolecta is 6:4. The activation energy estimated from FWO kinetic model also supports this interaction. The TG-FTIR and TG-MS results show that a significant decrease of CO2 occurs at PP and D. tertiolecta mass ratio of 6:4, indicating that small molecules (such as radicals) released by PP might react with CO2 produced by D. tertiolecta or carbonyl groups in the microalgae.