INVESTIGATION OF GAS EMISSION FROM COMBUSTION OF FUEL PELLET OF REFUSE PLASTIC AND RICE-HUSK

Abstract

Refuse-derived fuels (RDFs) from waste plastic are significant for environmental pollution treatment and an alternative to fossil fuels. However, the pollutants emission from the burning processes of RDFs is a major issue. In this work, analyzing exhaust gases (including O₂, CO₂, CO, HC, NO₂, NO, H₂S, SO₂) from the combustion of fuel pellets derived from waste plastic and rice-husk were investigated. Waste plastics (typical components including PET, PA, PE, PS, PVC) were combined with rice-husk to create fuel pellets with rice-husk contents of 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 %wt. A combustion system was set up with a horizontal combustion tube that controlled air input flow and operating temperature to evaluate gases emissions. The behaviour of gases emissions presented a relation with the combustion process in accordance with the ratios of plastic and rice-husk in the fuel pellets. The fuel samples with high rice-husk content exhibited a long burnout time while one with high plastic content had a short burnout time. The fuel samples with high plastic content (>70%) showed a high HC emission. The fuel pellet samples with the rice-husk content in a range of 60 - 80% could be considered to have a good combustion through the measured amounts of CO₂ and O₂ in exhaust gases.