Abstract
This study explored the composition and energy potential of university solid waste (USW) in China. Five combustible components, namely hard plastics (HP), paper (PP), soft plastics (SP), biomass (BM), and rubber (RB), were screened with the compositions 51%, 29%, 9%, 4%, and 3%, respectively. Each USW sample was gasified using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) at the heating rates of 5, 10, and 15 ℃/min and a final process temperature of 900 ℃. Thermal weight loss (TG) curves exposed the degradation in the order HP > SP > RB > BM > PP. Derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) peaks revealed that HP, PP, BM, and SP were degraded in three temperature-oriented phases in the range 172–731 ℃. The RB took an additional phase in the range 584–660 ℃. Major released gases, H2, CH4, CO, and CO2, were detected using MS via mass-to-charge (m/z) ratios. Higher H2 and total gas yield produced in the case of the HP dominated other materials at the lower heating rate of 5 ℃/min. Validation of data was assessed by equating experimental and calculated curves; therefore, the regression coefficient (R2) ranged between 0.884 and 0.997. The kinetics of the process were estimated by applying the Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO) model at the conversion rates (α) of 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8, which presented reasonable results. Overall, the lower heating rates supported higher thermal conversion and a high quantity of gaseous products for all the components.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to Tianjin University and School of Environmental Science and Engineering for completing this work.
Funding
This study work was funded by National Science Foundation of China (51776139, 51676138 & 51878557) and the High Technology Support Project of Tianjin (18ZXSZSF00120).
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The experimental work, data analysis, and writing of initial draft were accomplished by Imtiaz Ali Jamro.
The conception and dart reviewing were done by Guanyi Chen.
The proof reading of revised manuscript and language polishing were performed by Dr. Sajjad Ali Mangi.
The entire research work was supervised by Wenchao Ma.
The proofreading and formatting were performed by Saud Allehyani.
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Jamro, I.A., Chen, G., Mangi, S.A. et al. Management of university solid waste in China through gasification technology: An analysis of waste composition and energy potential. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 84191–84205 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21557-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21557-4