Thermal Cracking of Polyethylene Terepthalate (PET) Plastic Waste

Abstract

In 2015, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) revealed that there are 280 million tons of plastic produced globally each year This research was conducted to convert plastic waste to be useful products. Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is converted into gas and coke using thermal cracking method and a stainless steel batch type reactor. Looking for the effect of temperature variations on the thermal cracking of PET plastic waste and studying the kinetic phenomena are the purpose of this research. A total of 40.17 grams of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic waste was cracked in a batch reactor at 450, 500 and 550 °C for 15, 30 and 45 minutes. The highest percent yield of gas (89.92%) was resulted at 30 minutes of reaction time and 550 °C of the reaction temperature. The highest percent yield of coke (26.01%) was resulted at 45 minutes of reaction time and 500 °C of the reaction temperature. The activation energy for the highest percent yield of coke, 26.01% is -9,257701 kJ/mol, otherwise the process needs to be revised to get the positive activation energy.