%0 Journal Article
%T Production of Hydrocarbon Liquid by Thermal Pyrolysis of Paper Cup Waste
%A Bijayani Biswal
%A Sachin Kumar
%A R. K. Singh
%J Journal of Waste Management
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/731858
%X The paper cup waste was pyrolysed in a stainless steel semibatch reactor at a temperature range of 325¡ãC to 425¡ãC and at a heating rate of 20¡ãC£¿min£¿1 with an aim to study the physical and chemical characteristics of the obtained hydrocarbon liquid and to determine its feasibility as a commercial fuel. The maximum liquid yield was 52% at 400¡ãC. The functional groups present in the liquid are aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, alkenes, and alkanes. It was found that the pyrolytic liquid contains around 18 types of compounds having carbon chain length in the range of C6¨CC20. The obtained liquid can be used as valuable chemicals feedstock. 1. Introduction Urbanization is an important determinant of both the quantity and the type of fuel used in developing countries. In general, urbanization leads to higher levels of energy consumption, also accompanied with increases in income levels. Therefore, there is a shift from traditional to commercial fuels. Several other factors that contribute to this trend include decline in access to biomass fuels, inconvenience of transportation and storage of biomass fuels, and improvement unavailability of commercial fuels in urban areas [1]. The disposal of solid biomass and waste is becoming an enormous problem because they are very difficult and costly to manage. Pyrolysis has proved itself to be a new type of solid biomass and waste utilization technique that transforms biomass and waste material of low-energy density into bio-oil of high-energy density and recover higher value chemicals. Paper cups used as coffee or cold drinks cups are accumulating as wastes on the earth surface at a rapid rate. Considering only America, 14.4 million disposable paper cups are used for drinking coffee each year. Placed end-to-end, these cups would wrap around Earth 55 times and weigh around 900 million pounds. Most paper cups are designed for a single use and then disposed or recycled. One paper cup represents 4.1£¿g equivalent petrol with a production cost 2.5 times higher than plastic cups. Paper cups are not specifically recycled. They come under regular waste and burnt or put on landfills. Recycling paper cups is difficult because of its composition as a complex of paper and paraffin. Hence, they need about 150 years (same as plastics) to degrade because of their plastic foil [2]. The paper cups for hot drinks are produced from wood pulp (cellulose) and polyethylene plastic film, made out of petrol or paraffins, to improve its water resistivity and resistance to heat. They have a coating of 8¨C18£¿g/m2 on one side. Cups for
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