Waste Biomass Valor (2015) 6:507–514
DOI 10.1007/s12649-015-9382-3
ORIGINAL PAPER
Thermolysis of Medical Waste (Waste Syringe) to Liquid Fuel
Using Semi Batch Reactor
Abhishek Dash1 • Sachin Kumar2 • R. K. Singh1
Received: 2 April 2014 / Accepted: 25 May 2015 / Published online: 2 June 2015
Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
Abstract Disposable syringe is one of the major items in
the medical waste. Polypropylene (PP) is the main con-
stituent of several syringes, but the most of them have the
body from PP and the piston from high density polyethy-
lene. These plastics have a high potential as hydrocarbons
sources for chemical industry. In this study, Pyrolysis of
waste syringes was performed in a semi-batch reactor made
up of stainless steel at a temperature range of 400–550 °C
and at a heating rate of 20 °C min-1. Maximum (83 wt%)
liquid yield was obtained at temperature 450 °C. FT-IR
analysis of the pyrolysis oil indicated the presence of
alkanes, alkenes and aromatics rings. From GC–MS ana-
lysis, it was found that the pyrolysis oil contains around 25
types of compounds having carbon chain length in the
range of C10–C20. The physical properties of the pyrolysis
oil were close to mixture of diesel and petrol.
Keywords Waste syringe
Pyrolysis
FT-IR
GC–MS

Alternative fuel
& Sachin Kumar
sachin.kumar.01@cuj.ac.in
Abhishek Dash
dashdash02@gmail.com
R. K. Singh
rksingh@nitrkl.ac.in
1
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute
of Technology, Rourkela, Rourkela 769008, Orissa, India
2
Centre for Energy Engineering, Central University of
Jharkhand, Ranchi 835205, Jharkhand, India
Introduction
Medical waste consists of solids, liquids, sharps, and
laboratory waste that are potentially infectious or danger-
ous. It must be properly managed to protect the general
public, specifically healthcare and sanitation workers who
are regularly exposed to medical waste as an occupational
hazard. Medical waste differs from other types of haz-
ardous waste, such as industrial waste in that it comes from
biological sources or is used in the diagnosis, prevention, or
treatment of diseases. Common producers of medical waste
include hospitals, health clinics, nursing homes, medical
research laboratories, offices of physicians, dentists and
veterinarians, home health care and funeral homes. All
human activities produce waste. We all know that such
waste may be dangerous and needs safe disposal. Industrial
waste, sewage and agricultural waste pollute water, soil and
air. It can also be dangerous to human beings and envi-
ronment. Similarly, hospitals and other health care facilities
generate lots of waste which can transmit infections, par-
ticularly HIV, Hepatitis B & C and Tetanus, to the people
who handle it or come in contact with it. Most countries of
the world, especially the developing nations, are facing the
grim situation arising out of environmental pollution due to
pathological waste arising from increasing populations and
the consequent rapid growth in the number of health care
centers. India is no exception to this and it is estimated that
there are more than 15,000 small and private hospitals and
nursing homes in the country. This estimation is apart from
clinics and pathological labs, which also generate sizeable
amounts of medical waste. India generates around three
million tones of medical wastes every year and the amount
is expected to grow at eight per cent annually [1].
The main components of the medical wastes are: paper,
plastics, cotton, metals, etc. [2]. The plastics commonly
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found in medical wastes (33 wt%) are polyethylenetereph-
thalate, polyolefins (high density polyethylene, low density
polyethylene, polypropylene), polyurethanes, polystyrene,
polyvinylchloride (60 % from total plastics in medical
wastes), etc. These plastics have a high potential as hydro-
carbons sources for chemical industry. Medical waste ap-
pears from the disposable products such as: syringes, gloves,
tubes, bags, bowls, prostheses, medicine containers, diapers
etc. During their use, these products undergo only an in-
significant aging process but their degree of contamination is
very high. Contamination results either from various
medicines as antibiotics, vitamins, etc., or especially from
blood, viruses, serum, etc. The later kind of contamination
makes almost impossible their recycling by reprocessing due
to the health risk of processors [3]. Plastic materials com-
prise a steadily increasing proportion of the medical, mu-
nicipal and industrial waste going into landfill. Owing to the
huge amount of plastic wastes and environmental pressures,
recycling of plastics has become a predominant subject in
today’s plastics industry [4]. Pyrolysis is a thermo-chemical
recycling process for conversion of plastic waste by heating
the feedstock at high temperature in absence of air which
produces gaseous products which is then condensed to give
liquid fuels consisting of pyrolytic oil or liquid-oil. Almost
70–80 % of gaseous products are converted into liquid fuels
providing a good quantity of liquid fuel which then can be
enhanced. The reason for popularity of this process is that it
derives a good quantity of liquid fuel, from feedstock, which
has the properties very close to commercial transportation
fuels and hence can be upgraded or modified to replace
transportation fuel. Moreover, it also provides some amount
of gaseous and solid products which have higher market
value as they can also be used as a source of energy. Py-
rolysis of mixed plastic wastes has been done for the re-
covery of benzene, toluene and xylene aromatics in a
fluidized bed by Cho et al. [5]. Walter Kaminsky has per-
formed the pyrolysis experiments of waste plastics and scrap
tyres to obtained gaseous products (40–60 wt%, e.g. hy-
drogen, methane, ethylene, ethane) as well as liquid products
(40–60 wt%, mainly simple aromatics) depending on the
feed material [6]. Polystyrene (PS), polyethylene (PE) and
polypropylene (PP) have been pyrolyzed into three fractions:
gas, liquid and solid residue. The liquid products are usually
composed of higher boiling point hydrocarbons. In order to
obtain useful gasoline-range hydrocarbons from the py-
rolytic oil, fractional distillation is preferred for product
separation. More valuable chemical raw materials including
benzene, toluene and other condensed aromatic hydrocar-
bons may be obtained by refining the pyrolytic oil [7].
Polypropylene was cracked thermally and catalytically in
the presence of kaoline and silica alumina in a semi batch
reactor in the temperature range 400–550 °C in order to
obtain suitable liquid fuels. It was observed that up to
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Waste Biomass Valor (2015) 6:507–514
450 °C thermal cracking temperature, the major product of
pyrolysis was liquid oil and the major product at other
higher temperatures (475–550 °C) are viscous liquid or wax
and the highest yield of pyrolysis product is 82.85 % by
weight at 500 °C [8]. Pyrolysis of PVC-containing mu-
nicipal plastic waste (MPW) had been investigated in a
horizontal tube reactor using a long residence time (25 min)
at 530 °C. It has been concluded that the MPW samples
could be converted into volatile fractions with yields of
36.9–59.6 %, depending upon the composition of feed
polymers. The conversion of decomposition significantly
increased with the PVC concentration of raw materials [9].
Vasile et al. studied the pyrolysis of the disposable syringes
and reaction products have been characterized by gas
chromatography, density, refractive indices, aniline point
analysis and spectroscopic methods [3].
The present work aims to study the pyrolysis of medical
waste (waste syringes) at different temperature range to
characterize the obtained liquid product. Pyrolysis of waste
syringes was performed in a semi-batch reactor at a tem-
perature range of 400–550 °C and at a heating rate of
20 °C min-1. The effect of pyrolysis temperature on re-
action time, liquid yield, and volatiles were also studied.
The obtained liquid product was characterized for different
physical and chemical properties using GC–MS and FTIR.
Materials and Methods
The medical waste (plastic syringes) has been collected
from CWS hospital, Rourkela, India and after discarding
the needle, only body of the syringe was used for pyrolysis.
The syringes were cut into small square shaped pieces
(about 1 cm side). Before pyrolysis, the syringes were
sterilized by boiling in water for 3–4 h. The ultimate or
elemental analysis was done using CHNS analyzer (ELE-
MENTAR VARIO EL CUBE CHNSO). Calorific value of
waste syringes was found by ASTM D5868-10a.
Thermo gravimetric analysis of waste syringe sample
was carried out with a SHIMADZU DTG-60/60H instru-
ment. A known weight (6.55 mg) of the sample was heated
in a silica crucible at a constant heating rate of
10 °C min-1 operating in a stream of air with a flow rate of
30 ml min-1 from 34 to 700 °C.
The pyrolysis setup used in this experiment is same as in
the previous study [10]. It consists of a semi batch reactor
made of stainless steel tube (length—145 mm, internal
diameter—37 mm and outer diameter—41 mm) sealed at
one end and an outlet tube at other end. The reactor is
heated externally by an electric furnace, with the tem-
perature being measured by a Cr–Al: K type thermocouple
fixed inside the reactor and temperature is controlled by
external PID controller. 20 g of waste syringe sample was
Waste Biomass Valor (2015) 6:507–514 509

loaded in each pyrolysis reaction. The condensable liquid

products/wax were collected through the condenser and 100
weighed. After pyrolysis, the solid residue left out inside
the reactor was weighed. Then the weight of gaseous/ 80 o
10 C Air
volatile product was calculated from the material balance.

Reactions were carried out at different temperatures rang-
ing from 400 to 550 °C.
FT-IR of the pyrolysis oil obtained at 450 °C was done
in a Perkin-Elmer Fourier transformed infrared spec-
trophotometer with a resolution of 4 cm-1, in the range of
400–4000 cm-1 using Nujol mull as reference. GC/MS-QP
2010 SHIMADZU, equipped with flame ionization and
mass spectrometry detection (GC–FID–MS) was used to
determine the chemical compounds present in the oil. A
capillary column coated with a 0.25 um film of DB-5 with
length of 30 m and diameter 0.25 mm was used. The GC
was equipped with a split injector at 200 °C with a split
ratio of 1:10. Helium gas of 99.995 % purity was used as
carrier gas at flow rate of 1.51 ml min-1. The oven initial
temperature was set to 70 °C for 2 min and then increased
to 300 °C at a rate of 10 °C min-1 and maintained for
7 min. All the compounds were identified by means of the
NIST library. Mass spectrometer was operated at an in-
terface temperature of 240 °C with ion source temperature
of 200 °C of range 40–1000 m/z.
Result and Discussion
Ultimate or Elemental Analysis of Waste Syringe
The ultimate or elemental analysis of waste syringe sample
is shown in Table 1. The oxygen is 16.13 % in the elemental
analysis of waste syringe. The nitrogen and sulphur in the
waste syringe sample probably belong to some impurities.
The disposable syringes are made from mixed plastics, in
which the main constituent is polypropylene and the rest are
polyethylene and poly vinyl chloride. The result of ele-
mental analysis of waste syringe is well confirmed with the
result of mixed plastics elemental analysis [5].
TGA and DTG Analysis of Waste Syringe Sample
% Wt Remaining
60
40
20
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
o
Temperature ( C)
Fig. 1 TGA curve of waste syringe
stability of a material, or to investigate its behavior in dif-
ferent atmospheres (e.g. inert or oxidizing). TGA applied in
determination of the study of thermal stability/degradation
of waste syringe in various ranges of temperature. From the
TGA curve as showed in Fig. 1, the waste syringe degrada-
tion started at 360 °C and was completed at 500 °C for a
heating rate of 10 °C min-1 in the air atmosphere. The
degradation temperature at which weight loss of 50 % (T50)
takes place was about 470 °C for waste syringe. The main
thermal degradation took place at the temperature range from
400 to 500 °C for the mixed plastics [5].
Differential thermogravimetry (DTG) curve for waste
syringe contains only one peak, this indicates that there is
only one degradation step in Fig. 2 it has shown that the
dominant peak over 370–510 °C where the conversion
takes place. Comparing the peak temperature of syringe
DTG curves obtained in this study with those reported for
PP by other researchers, a total similarity has been found.
Gersten et al. [11] observed a single peak corresponding to
the decomposition reaction of PP. In the works carried out
by Sorum et al. [12] and Wu et al. [13], a single-reaction
model was also proposed for the thermal decomposition of
PP, polyethylene and polystyrene [12, 13].

Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is a thermal analysis Effect of Temperature on Product Distribution

technique which measures the weight change in a material as
a function of temperature and time, in a controlled envi- The pyrolysis of waste syringe yielded four different
ronment. This can be very useful to investigate the thermal products i.e. oil, gas, wax and residue. The distributions of

Table 1 Elemental analysis of

Sample C (wt%) H (wt%) N (wt%) S (wt%) O (wt%) Cl (wt%) GCV (MJ/kg)
waste syringe
Waste syringe 72.2 11.46 0.18 0.03 16.13 – 42.24
Mixed plastics [5] 79.9 12.6 – – 5.10 1.13 44.40

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3000 Reaction Time

250 Liquid
80
Gas/Volatiles
Wax
2500 Residue

DTG 200 60

Reaction Time (min)

2000

% Yield
150 40
1500
100 20
1000
50 0
500
400 450 500 550
o
0 Temperature ( C)

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 Fig. 3 Effect of temperature on reaction time and product distribu-
o tion during pyrolysis of waste syringe
Temperature ( C)

Fig. 2 DTG curve of waste syringe

these fractions are different at different temperatures and
are shown in the Table 2.
The condensable oil/wax (a mixture of alkanes that falls
within the 20 B n B 40 range; they are found in the solid
state at room temperature and begin to enter the liquid
phase past approximately 37 °C) and the non-condensable
gas/volatiles fractions of the reaction constituted major
product as compared to the solid residue fractions. The
condensable product obtained at low temperature (400 °C)
was low viscous liquids. With increase in temperature, the
liquid became viscous/wax at and above 500 °C. The hy-
drocarbon is continuously cracking; the wax may be rep-
resentative of the intermediate molecular weight products.
The recovery of condensable fraction was very low at low
temperature i.e. at 400 °C and increased with gradual in-
crease of temperature [14]. From Table 2, it is observed
that at low temperature the reaction time was more, due to
which secondary cracking of the pyrolysis product oc-
curred inside the reactor and resulted in highly volatile
product. The low-temperature molecular weight changes
without volatilization are principally due to the scission of
weak links, such as oxygen, incorporated into the main
chain as impurities. Similarly, the low liquid yield at high
temperature was due to volatilizing higher molecular
weight products before undergoing further cracking and
more non condensable gaseous/volatile fractions due to
rigorous cracking.
Effect of Temperature on Reaction Time
The effect of temperature on the reaction time of the re-
action for the pyrolysis of waste syringe is shown in Fig. 3.
The pyrolysis reaction rate increased and reaction time
decreased with increase in temperature. As the reaction
temperature increased, the yield of the gas also increased
because of the generation of thermodynamically stable
gases. On the other hand, the yield of the pyrolysis oil
decreased with the decrease in the reaction temperature.
Similar effect of temperature on reaction time has been
observed in pyrolysis of mixed plastics waste [5].
Characterization of the Liquid Product
FT-IR of the Oil Sample Obtained at 450 °C
Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is an im-
portant analysis technique which detects various charac-
teristic functional groups present in oil. On interaction of

Table 2 Distribution of
Temperature Reaction time Liquid yield Gas yield Wax yield Residue
different fractions at different
(°C) (min) (wt%) (wt%) (wt%) (wt%)
temperatures in pyrolysis of
waste syringe 400 245 23.4 3.834 0 36.7
450 100 83.3 16.7 0 0
500 65 24.2 19.3 56.5 0
550 44 8.92 29.28 61.8 0

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an infrared light with oil, chemical bond will stretch,
contract, and absorb infrared radiation in a specific wave
length range regardless the structure of the rest of the
molecules.
Figure 4 shows the FTIR spectra of waste syringe. C–H
stretching vibrations at frequency 3072.94 indicate the
presence of alkenes. The presence of alkanes is detected at
Fig. 4 FT-IR spectrometry of waste syringe pyrolysis oil obtained at
450 °C
Fig. 5 GC plot of waste syringe pyrolysis oil obtained at 450 °C
511
2725.06 cm-1 with C–H stretching vibrations. The pres-
ence of alkanes was detected by C–H scissoring and
bending vibrations at 1375.54 cm-1. The presence of al-
cohols, ethers, carboxylic acids, esters is detected by C–O
stretching vibrations at 1155.81 cm-1 and the C–H bend-
ing vibrations at frequency 738.12 indicates the presence of
phenyl ring substitution bands. Same functional groups
have been found in the oil obtained by pyrolysis of dis-
posable syringes [3]. The results were found consistent
when compared with the results of GC–MS.
GC–MS of the Oil Sample
The GC–MS analysis of the oil sample obtained by py-
rolysis of waste syringe was carried out to know the
compounds present in the oil (Fig. 5) and is summarized in
the Table 3.
It has been observed that the pyrolysis oil contains
around 25 compounds. Taking into account of area per-
centage, the highest peak areas of total ion chromatogram
(TIC) of the compounds were 1-octadecene, 3-octadecane,
1-pentadecene, 1-nonadecene, tetraisopropylcyclohexane,
and cyclododecanemethanol. The components present in
waste syringe are mainly homologous series of saturated
and unsaturated hydrocarbons, in accordance with lit-
erature data [15]. The linear hydrocarbons are main
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Table 3 GC-MS Analysis of waste syringe pyrolysis oil

R. time (min) Compound Area % Formula

4.279 Heptane, 3,3,6-trimethyl- 2.62 C10H22

5.567 3-Octadecene, (e)- 11.53 C18H36
6.371 1-Tridecanol 1.12 C13H28O
6.790 (2,4,6-Trimethylcyclohexyl) methanol 2.39 C10H20O
7.293 2,4-Diethyl-1-methylcyclohexane 1.82 C11H22
8.135 Tetradecane, 4-methyl- 0.55 C15H32
8.263 4.6-Dimethyldodecane 0.34 C14H30
8.373 2-Hexadecen-1-ol, 3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-, [r-[r*,r*-(e)]]-(t-phytol) 0.54 C20H40O
9.216 1-Nonadecene 15.05 C19H38
9.463 1-Pentadecene 7.97 C15H30
10.189 Cyclododecanemethanol 4.49 C13H26O
11.806 7,11-Dimethyl-10-dodecen-1-ol 0.54 C14H28O
12.278 Hexadecylsulfonyl chloride 5.98 C16H33ClO2S
12.939 (2,2,6,6-Tetramethylcyclohexyl) methanol 3.36 C11H22O
13.037 10-Dodecen-1-ol, 7,11-dimethyl- 0.45 C14H28O
13.245 Isotridecanol- 0.96 C13H28O
13.497 Cyclohexane, 1-ethyl-2-propyl- 0.23 C11H22
14.314 Cyclooctan, 1-methyl-3-propyl- 0.51 C12H24
15.325 2,4,6-Trimethyl-11-dodecen-1-ol 3.08 C15H30O
15.617 Cyclooctane, 1-methyl-3-propyl- 0.67 C12H24
16.531 1-Ethyl-2-propylcyclohexane 0.48 C11H22
19.386 1-Octadecene 7.92 C18H36
20.116 1-Octadecene 2.36 C18H36
22.709 1-Octadecene 0.85 C18H36
24.952 1-Octadecene 0.46 C18H36

Table 4 Physical properties

Tests Results obtained Test method
analysis of waste syringe
pyrolysis oil Specific gravity @ 15/15 °C 0.8288 IS:1448 P:16
Density @ 15 °C in kg/cc 0.8281 IS:1448 P:16
Kinematic viscosity @ 40 °C in Cst 2.97 IS:1448 P:25
Kinematic viscosity @ 100 °C in Cst 1.14 IS:1448 P:25
Conradson carbon residue 0.05 % IS:1448 P:122
Flash point by abel method -6 °C IS:1448 P:20
Fire point 2 °C IS:1448 P:20
Cloud point -3 °C IS:1448 P:10
Pour point -18 °C IS:1448 P:10
Gross calorific value in MJ/kg 42.54 IS:1448 P:6
Sulphur content \50 ppm IS:1448 P:33
Calculated Cetane Index (CCI) 48 IS:1448 P:9
Distillation IS:1448 P:18
Initial boiling point 80 °C
10 % recovery 124 °C
30 % recovery 160 °C
50 % recovery 240 °C
70 % recovery 318 °C
85 % recovery 330 °C
Final boiling point 330 °C
Residue 15.0 ml

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Table 5 Fuel properties comparison of waste syringe pyrolysis oil with commercial transportation fuels
Properties Specific Kinematic Flash Pour GCV IBP (°C) FBP (°C) Chemical
gravity viscosity point point (MJ/kg) formula
Fuels 15 °C/15 °C @ 40 °C (cst) (°C) (°C)

Waste syringe pyrolysis oil 0.8288 2.97 -6 -18 42.54 80 330 C8–C40
Gasoline [16] 0.72–0.78 – -43 -40 42–46 27 225 C4–C12
Diesel [16] 0.82–0.85 2–5.5 53–80 -40 to -1 42–45 172 350 C8–C25
Bio-diesel [16] 0.88 4–6 100–170 -3 to 19 37–40 315 350 C12–C22
Heavy fuel oil [16] 0.94–0.98 [200 90–180 – -40 – – –

components resulted from PE and the branched hydrocar-
bons from PP decomposition [3].
Physical Properties of Oil Sample
Table 4 shows the results of physical property analysis of
oil obtained from pyrolysis of waste syringe. The appear-
ance of the oil is dark yellowish free from visible sedi-
ments. From comparison with other transportation fuels as
shown in Table 5, the density and viscosity of liquid pro-
duct can be modified by blending it with commercial
transportation fuels. The flash point and pour point of waste
syringe pyrolysis oil is very low as compared to other
transportation fuels. Waste syringe pyrolysis oil has GCV
of 42 MJ kg-1 which is in the comparable range of gaso-
line and diesel; therefore this pyrolysis oil can perform
relatively superior in engines. From the distillation report
of the oil it is observed that, the boiling range of the oil is
80–330 °C, which infers the presence of mixture of dif-
ferent oil components such as gasoline, kerosene and diesel
in the oil. The liquid product contains substantial amount
of volatiles as its initial boiling point is below 100 °C.
From this result, it is observed these could be possible
feedstocks for further upgrading or use of lighter com-
pounds as a diesel fuel.
Conclusion
Pyrolysis of medical waste (waste syringe) was performed
in a semi batch reactor made up of stainless steel at
temperature range from 400 to 550 °C and at a heating
rate of 20 °C min-1. The liquid yield is highest at 450 °C,
highly volatile products are obtained at low temperature,
the products obtained at temperature 500 and 550 °C are
viscous liquid and wax. Reaction time decreases with
increase in temperature. The functional groups present in
the waste syringe pyrolysis oil are similar to the mixed
plastics waste pyrolysis oil given in the several literatures.
It was found that the pyrolytic oil contains around 25
types of compounds having carbon chain length in the
range of C10–C20. The physical properties of pyrolysis oil
obtained were in the range of other transportation and
moderate quality fuels. It has been shown that a simple
batch pyrolysis method can convert medical waste to
value added chemical products with a significant yield
which varies with temperature.
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