Thermal Conversion of Plastic Mixtures

This section describes the different processes and treatments developed for the thermal decomposition of complex mixtures of several types of plastic, which is the case when processing real plastic wastes. Because the general aspects related to the degradation of each individual polymer have been commented on in previous sections, this section will emphasize technical factors, such as description of the reactors and processes, including the pretreatments which are 

Interactions Between Components During Thermal Degradation 

Only a few studies have appeared with the aim of determining the possible presence of interactions and synergistic effects during the degradation of polymer mixtures and real mixed plastic wastes. In some cases the results and conclusions of these studies are contradictory. Thus, while Wu et al.94 did not observe any interaction between the components during the pyrolysis of a mixture of HDPE, LDPE, PP, PS, ABS and PVC, other authors have observed significantly different results when degrading mixed plastics compared to the conversion of the individual polymers. Several of these works are commented on below. 

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