Environmental impact assessment of converting flexible packaging plastic waste to pyrolysis oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes
A solution to low recycling rates of plastic waste is the conversion into multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) that have high value and can create additional revenue for plant operators. The purpose of this study was to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) of an integrated system that involves fl...
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sg-ntu-dr.10356-1492552021-06-05T20:11:19Z Environmental impact assessment of converting flexible packaging plastic waste to pyrolysis oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes Ahamed, Ashiq Veksha, Andrei Yin, Ke Weerachanchai, Piyarat Giannis, Apostolos Lisak, Grzegorz School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Engineering::Environmental engineering::Waste management Life Cycle Assessment Plastic Waste A solution to low recycling rates of plastic waste is the conversion into multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) that have high value and can create additional revenue for plant operators. The purpose of this study was to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) of an integrated system that involves flexible packaging plastic waste (FPPW) pyrolysis, oil upgrading, and MWCNTs production. The objectives were to determine the environmental impact of MWCNTs synthesis from non-condensable pyrolysis gases, and to assess the environmental impact of MWCNTs synthesis from different plastic fractions. Integrating MWCNTs synthesis to the plastic pyrolysis process provides various environmental benefits including, reduction of contribution towards climate change, fossil depletion, human toxicity (cancer), and ionizing radiation potentials. Sensitivity analysis of MWCNTs yields provided the range of impacts on the environment and a critical yield of >2% for most impact categories was determined. Comparison of different plastic fractions indicated that using low PET content feedstock had lesser impact on the environment, and demonstrated comparable performance to mixed virgin plastics for most impact categories. The results highlighted the versatility of the integrated pyrolysis process for treating diverse plastic waste fractions with negligible effects from the impurities present in the actual FPPW during thermal processing. Accepted version Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), and Economic Development Board (Singapore) 2021-06-03T14:08:27Z 2021-06-03T14:08:27Z 2020 Journal Article Ahamed, A., Veksha, A., Yin, K., Weerachanchai, P., Giannis, A. & Lisak, G. (2020). Environmental impact assessment of converting flexible packaging plastic waste to pyrolysis oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 390, 121449-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121449 0304-3894 0000-0003-0346-4073 0000-0003-4647-0342 0000-0002-4256-9954 0000-0003-4230-9092 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/149255 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121449 31630860 2-s2.0-85073721067 390 121449 en Journal of Hazardous Materials © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. This paper was published in Journal of Hazardous Materials and is made available with permission of Elsevier B.V. application/pdf |
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Engineering::Environmental engineering::Waste management Life Cycle Assessment Plastic Waste Ahamed, Ashiq Veksha, Andrei Yin, Ke Weerachanchai, Piyarat Giannis, Apostolos Lisak, Grzegorz Environmental impact assessment of converting flexible packaging plastic waste to pyrolysis oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes |
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A solution to low recycling rates of plastic waste is the conversion into multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) that have high value and can create additional revenue for plant operators. The purpose of this study was to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) of an integrated system that involves flexible packaging plastic waste (FPPW) pyrolysis, oil upgrading, and MWCNTs production. The objectives were to determine the environmental impact of MWCNTs synthesis from non-condensable pyrolysis gases, and to assess the environmental impact of MWCNTs synthesis from different plastic fractions. Integrating MWCNTs synthesis to the plastic pyrolysis process provides various environmental benefits including, reduction of contribution towards climate change, fossil depletion, human toxicity (cancer), and ionizing radiation potentials. Sensitivity analysis of MWCNTs yields provided the range of impacts on the environment and a critical yield of >2% for most impact categories was determined. Comparison of different plastic fractions indicated that using low PET content feedstock had lesser impact on the environment, and demonstrated comparable performance to mixed virgin plastics for most impact categories. The results highlighted the versatility of the integrated pyrolysis process for treating diverse plastic waste fractions with negligible effects from the impurities present in the actual FPPW during thermal processing. |
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School of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
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School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Ahamed, Ashiq Veksha, Andrei Yin, Ke Weerachanchai, Piyarat Giannis, Apostolos Lisak, Grzegorz |
format |
Article |
author |
Ahamed, Ashiq Veksha, Andrei Yin, Ke Weerachanchai, Piyarat Giannis, Apostolos Lisak, Grzegorz |
author_sort |
Ahamed, Ashiq |
title |
Environmental impact assessment of converting flexible packaging plastic waste to pyrolysis oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes |
title_short |
Environmental impact assessment of converting flexible packaging plastic waste to pyrolysis oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes |
title_full |
Environmental impact assessment of converting flexible packaging plastic waste to pyrolysis oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes |
title_fullStr |
Environmental impact assessment of converting flexible packaging plastic waste to pyrolysis oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Environmental impact assessment of converting flexible packaging plastic waste to pyrolysis oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes |
title_sort |
environmental impact assessment of converting flexible packaging plastic waste to pyrolysis oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes |
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2021 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10356/149255 |
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1702431145169256448 |