Kinetic analysis for thermal cracking of HDPE: A new isoconversional approach

Converting waste plastic into marketable hydrocarbons is a promising way to protect the environment and earn financial gain. While several kinetic studies have examined the cracking of waste plastic, they are often oversimplified or inappropriate for designing an industrial reactor. This work proves the necessity of using isoconversional methods by using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). DSC verified that cracking of waste plastic involves the production of several intermediates, indicating that the kinetics is more complex and requires further studies. Several isoconversional methods such as Friedman, Ozawa, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWD), Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) and model-free were applied to estimate the apparent activation energy and frequency factor of thermal cracking of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) using nonisothermal and isothermal Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). The determined kinetic parameters from each method were evaluated against the experimental data. As none of these methods were found to have an acceptable agreement with the experimental data, a new isothermal isoconversional model was proposed and good matching results was were observed. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.