Catalytic co-pyrolysis of oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) and surgical face mask (SFM) wastes: Thermo-kinetic study, ANN model fitting, and synergistic effect

Abstract

Background

Catalytic co-pyrolysis process is an emerging thermochemical pathway to convert multiple wastes, such as biomass and municipal solid wastes into value added fuels. The ecology would suffer from mishandling of these materials, leading to landfills and microplastic contamination. However, the co-pyrolysis of the surgical face mask (SFM) wastes with biomass remains a niche research area.

Methods

The co-pyrolysis performance, kinetics and thermodynamics of oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) and SFM mixture were evaluated via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) approach at heating rates from 10 to 100 °C.min⁻¹ with weight ratio of 1:1, 4:1 and 1:4. Additionally, the development of the artificial neural network (ANN) model to represent the thermal degradation behaviour of the overall catalytic co-pyrolysis process for EFB and SFM mixtures.

Significant findings

The highest average pyrolysis performance index, I_r value of 8.11 was found in the reaction at 50 °C.min⁻¹. The weight change, ΔW_TGA showed the thermal degradation behaviour of EFB and SFM co-pyrolysis exhibited predominantly inhibitory characteristics, as the experimental values were higher than the theoretical values. Moreover, the HZSM-5 catalyst showed great affinity towards the sample matrix, achieving high reduction of activation energy and difference in enthalpy of 13.54 % and 14.94 %, respectively.