When heated, polymers break down into compounds with a shorter molecular chain. The specialists of the Krasnoyarsk Science Centre of the SB RAS took advantage of this property and decomposed polymers by a low-temperature combustion in lignite gas, which led to their processing into raw hydrocarbons. Pyrolysis of the waste leads to generation of synthesis gas, which can be used for power production, and the condensate, which can be used for making primary polymers.
“Initially, we faced the task of synthesising carbon nanotubes, a promising nanomaterial, from garbage. Of course, we got nanotubes, but we also got a strange condensate as a by-product. It turned to be very similar to a petroleum product. When brown coal is burned with application of the reverse blow method, at a high temperature combustion front, it reacts with a gasifying agent – air, which leads to production of synthesis gas containing, in addition to usual carbon dioxide and water, hydrogen and methane,” the Krasnoyarsk Science Centre of the SB RAS quotes Dmitry Chirkov, an engineer of the Molecular Electronics Department.
This innovation will contribute to the development of coal chemistry, which will support coal demand against the background of reduced use of coal in the power industry. “Coal-chemical technologies often seem to be dirty and environmentally unfriendly, but today the level of technology allows burning coal without release of tons of soot into the air. If we burn coal not to carbon dioxide and water, the resulting useful products are methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen. They can be used in various chemical processes for production of hydrocarbons, fuel and lubricants,” the Krasnoyarsk Science Centre of the SB RAS quotes Mikhail Simunin, PhD, leading engineer of the Molecular Electronics Department.
The innovation will also contribute to reduction of methane emissions, one of the largest sources of which is the waste industry. McKinsey estimates that it accounts for 23% of global CH4 emissions, while the industry accounts for 30%, and agriculture and forestry for 38% and 6%, respectively.
