A Preliminary Study of the Plasma Pyrolysis of Waste Tyres

Thermal plasma pyrolysis of waste tyres for recovering energy was performed in a nitrogen plasma reactor. The main gaseous products were identified by chromatography as H2, CO, CH4, C2H2 and so on. From a series of experiments, the effects of the process parameters of thermal plasma pyrolysis were investigated. Under our experimental conditions with steam injection, the total contents of H2 and CO reached up to 38.3% in the gas product, C2H2 up to 4%, and the maximum calorific value of the pyrolysis gas was 8.96 MJ/m3. The results indicate that plasma-assisted thermal decomposition of waste tyre particles may be a useful way for recovering energy and useful chemicals.