Synergistic effect on thermal behavior and char morphology analysis during co-pyrolysis of paulownia wood blended with different plastics waste

Thermal behavior of Paulownia wood (PAW), model plastics (polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride and polyethylene terephthalate, abbreviated as PP, PVC and PET) and their mixtures during pyrolysis process were studied through thermogravimetric analyzer. Scanning electron microscopy technology (SEM) and fractal theory were applied to evaluate the surface morphology of pyrolysis chars. This study found that PP showed synergistic effect on PAW pyrolysis with more volatiles release than predicated value, and the maximum volatiles yield exhibited with 25% PAW blending ratio. However, higher char yields were observed compared with the predicted values during co-pyrolysis process of PAW blends with PVC or PET, and the maximum char yields were obtained under the PAW blending ratio of 75% and 25% respectively. An evident decline in mean activation energy was found during co-pyrolysis of the PAW blending with plastics. The minimum values of mean activation energy for the PAW/PP, PAW/PVC and PAW/PET were gained when the PAW blending ratio were 75%, 50% and 75% respectively. Quantitative information about surface topography of pyrolysis chars were obtained by fractal analysis of the SEM microphotograph. The fractal dimension of residual chars from PAW/PP blends increased from 1.75 to 1.84 as increasing the ratio of PP from 25% to 75%, indicating that PP addition promoted the nonuniformity of the co-pyrolysis chars. The surface morphology of residual chars from PAW/PET and PAW/PVC blends showed a contrary tendency, and the minimum values of fractal dimension were respectively 1.62 and 1.61 under 25% PAW blending ratio.