Supervisors: Raffaella Ocone, Heriot-Watt University, Ondrej Masek, University of Edinburgh
PhD Student: Haoyu Li, Heriot-Watt University
Status: Closed
The work proposed is aimed at applying the lumping approach in a nested fashion to furnish a unified model for the pyrolysis of wastes and successive fractionation of the liquid products.
Starting from the wastes, a discrete lumping methodology will be applied to the three lumps formed by the gases, the oil and the char resulting from the pyrolysis of wastes (step 1 –S1). Successively, the fractionation of the oil (step 2 –S2) will be described through the development of a continuum lumping model; indeed, the number of components in the liquid mixture (oil) is very large and they can be characterised uniquely by a kernel, in this specific case either the molecular weight or the boiling point. The original “lump” represented by the oil, characterised through the application of a discrete lumping (DL) will then represent the feedstock for the continuum lumping (CL) model which will furnish ultimately the composition of the fractioned products. The work presents a number of scientific challenges, where research is needed: firstly, the kinetics
of plastics pyrolysis is not well understood; additionally, the fractionation of the bio-oil would present an “apparent” kinetics of the multi-component mixture which is not simply explicable through the kinetics of each single reaction. The kinetic studies alone represent scientifically challenging and rigorous material amenable for a doctorate; the determination of the yield function for the fractionation process is novel and together with the complete modelling effort and the kinetic experiments to validate the model, will constitute a complete theme for a PhD work. This work is task-divided to furnish clear milestones and deliverables.