Pyrolysis characteristics of glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) under isothermal conditions

•The basic data for GFRP (glass fiber reinforced plastics) pyrolysis were reported.•The kinetic parameter was determined in isothermal conditions.•A syngas composition was analyzed varying temperature and residence time.•The structural variations in the GFRP char were observed.•The results are useful for the GFRP pyrolysis and gasification processes.

The pyrolysis characteristics of GFRP (glass fiber reinforced plastic) were determined under isothermal conditions at 500–1000 °C using a thermo-balance reactor (TBR) and wire mesh reactor (WMR). The kinetics parameters for the GFRP were derived using the activation energy, of 28.17 kJ mol−1, of frequency factor, 2.12 s−1, and reaction order, of 0.48–0.8. The structural variations in the GFRP char were determined using BET, SEM, and FT-IR techniques. Organic compounds and polymers were decomposed with increasing temperature. The experimental results showed that increasing the temperature and reaction time favored polymer scission at temperature of 600–1000 °C with residence time of 2–10 s.