Evaluation of optimum carbonization conditions of the blended domestic polymeric waste, biomass and lignite in the presence of catalyst by Taguchi and ANOVA optimization analysis

Abstract

• Pyrolysis of the blended lignite, pistachio shell and municipal solid waste were performed. • Optimization of five major influencing parameters of pyrolysis of the blended mixture using Taguchi method and ANOVA analysis. • The most effective parameter on the experimental results was found. • Evaluation of best pyrolysis condition of the blended lignite, pistachio shell and domestic wastes. • Knowledge of production of the solid, liquid and gasses products with optimized process parameters and their properties. In this work, the effects of blending mass ratio, pyrolysis temperature, pyrolysis time, heating rate, and amount of catalyst on the pyrolysis of the blended lignite (EL), pistachio shell (PS) and domestic wastes (DW) were investigated. The influence of experimental parameters on the char, liquid and gas efficiency was statistically evaluated by the Taguchi method and ANOVA analysis. The optimum experimental conditions is a1b1c2d1e3, a3b1c1d1e2, a2b3c2d3e2 for liquid efficiency, char efficiency and gas efficiency respectively. The amount of catalyst was found to be the most effective parameter for solid efficiency and the mass ratio for both liquid and gas efficiency. The char, liquid and gas efficiencys estimated by the Taguchi method under optimum experimental conditions are 39.58%, 18.5% and 47.04%, respectively. The char efficiency of 42.54%, liquid efficiency of 19.78% and gas efficiency of 49.83% were determined under optimum experimental conditions obtained by the Taguchi method. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was also used to determine the mean response magnitudes of each controllable process parameter. ANOVA analysis results support the results found by the Taguchi method. In the carbonization process, FTIR, XRD and SEM analyzes were performed to determine the structural change of the solid product depending on the temperature.