Miskolczi, N; Buyong, F; Williams, P T, Thermogravimetric analysis and pyrolysis kinetic study of Malaysian refuse derived fuels, Journal of the Energy Institute, September 2010, p125-132

Refuse derived fuel (RDF), containing mainly paper and plastics, is a waste material that has potential to be used for energy or fuel production. This paper reports on a thermogravimetric study and kinetic analysis of the thermal decomposition of Malaysian RDF. It was found that Malaysian RDF contained 59·8 wt-% plastics, 28·6 wt-% cardboard, 5·1 wt-% newspapers and 6·5 wt-% other materials. The plastics consisted of 64·6% polyethylene, 17·5% polypropylene, 10·1% polystyrene and 7·8% other plastics (polyethylene terephthalate, formaldehyde based resin, polyamides, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and polycarbonate). Results obtained from sample weight loss thermograms showed significant differences in their characteristic data (degradation temperature, rate of weight loss, etc.). The kinetic parameters have been derived from non-isothermal thermogravimetric data at a temperature range from room temperature up to 650ºC using a constant heating rate of 20ºC min-1. The thermal degradation of the RDF sample was modelled by applying four independent parallel first order reaction kinetic solutions corresponding to the cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignin and plastic content of the RDF. The constituents of the Malaysian RDF showed a thermal degradation profile in relation to increasing temperature in the order of cardboard/newspaper-1, while the calculated activation energy of polymer blends based on the data of individual polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene was 263·2 kJ mol-1.