Production and Characterization of Liquid Fuel from Mixed Plastic Wast

In Uganda 300 tons of plastic bags are dumped into soils annually. This poses serious environmental challenges since plastic wastes take long to degrade. The two common alternatives methods for recycling of municipal and industrial polymer wastes are incineration and mechanical recycling. The new environmentally friendly method for removal of plastic wastes is pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is a principal way to convert plastic wastes to fuel oil. In this study the production and characterization of liquid fuel from mixed plastic wastes was carried out to test the applicability and usefulness of catalytic pyrolysis with an aim of reduction of plastic waste in an environmentally friendly way and produce alternative fuel. This was done with silica-alumina synthesized catalysts and use of sodium carbonate to reduce the emission of dioxins in the environment. The production was done by batch system containing 200 grams of plastic wastes, 10% silica-alumina as catalyst and 10% sodium carbonate as a scavenger. The plastic wastes were collected around Kampala city. These included; LDPE and some HDPE, commonly used in carriers or packages.