Journal article
Depolymerization of polyethylene using induction-coupled plasma technology
Plasma chemistry and plasma processing, v 20(1), pp 37-64
01 Mar 2000
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
A significant, valuable percentage of today's municipal solid waste stream consists of polymeric materials, fbr which almost no economic recycling technology currently exists. This polymeric waste is incinerated landfilled, or recycled via downgraded usage. Thermal plasma treatment is a potentially viable means of recycling these materials by converting them back into monomers or into other useful compounds. The technical, laboratory scale, feasibility of using an induction-coupled RF plasma (ICP) heated reactor for this purpose has been demonstrated in the present study. Polyethylene powder was injected axially through the center of an ICP torch. Results from the initial set of experiments, analyzed using a statistical design of experiment technique, showed that plasma plate power, central gas flow rare, probe gas flow rate, powder feed rate, and the interaction between the quench gas flow rate and power input were the key process parameters affecting the yield of ethylene in the product gas stream. The gaseous products obtained were mainly mixtures of ethylene and propylene. The amount of propylene obtained was significantly higher than anticipated and was believed to be due to beta-scission reactions occurring at the higher plasma plasma temperatures.
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Details
- Title
- Depolymerization of polyethylene using induction-coupled plasma technology
- Creators
- R R Guddeti - Drexel UniversityR Knight - Drexel UniversityE D Grossmann - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Plasma chemistry and plasma processing, v 20(1), pp 37-64
- Publisher
- Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publ
- Number of pages
- 28
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Materials Science and Engineering
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000086551300004
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-0034147314
- Other Identifier
- 991019167731904721
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InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Engineering, Chemical
- Physics, Applied
- Physics, Fluids & Plasmas