Extraction of Fuel from Waste Plastic using Pyrolysis Process

There has been an ever increasing global demand for energy in recent years. The demand especially from liquid fuels is very high and the limited resources of fuel production has created bottleneck leading to an energy crisis. This has led to exploring other resources for fuel production, one of which is plastic. Being a non-degradable source, plastics disposed off in the open environment as wastes pose a threat to the environment. Most of the waste plastics end up as landfills. It can instead be used as a source for making fuel. The work describes an attempt to use the waste plastic to synthesize potential fuel called ‘Pyrolysis Oil’ since the process used in order to obtain the oil is Pyrolysis. The obtained oil from different grades of waste plastics is analyzed so as to validate its use as fuel. Waste Plastic from municipal solid waste were collected and were sorted based on their types like PET bottles, Polypropylene, Polystyrene, HDPE and LDPE. These Plastic wastes are graded and shredded and then heated in a closed chamber (Similar to a process called Pyrolysis) to attain temperatures up to 450-5500C. The Plastic waste is melted and gases produced at this temperature are condensed to liquid state. Both, Condensed and Uncondensed gases can be used as fuel to engines. The Fuel produced is tested for Calorific Value, Density, Viscosity and Fire point, and is compared with Gasoline and Diesel Fuel.