Thermo-Kinetic Study of Co-Pyrolysis of Empty Fruit Bunches (Efb) and Disposable Face Mask (Dfm) Wastes Via Thermogravimetric Analysis

Recent innovative approach to reduce the palm oil industry biomass is via the co-pyrolysis process, by introducing a high hydrogen containing co-feedstock, such as polyolefin plastics. Following this, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has greatly exacerbated the plastic waste generation due to the surge of disposable face masks (DFM) consumption. Hence, the co-pyrolysis characteristics and kinetics of empty fruit bunch (EFB) and DFM were investigated in this study. The EFB and DFM samples were blended at a weight ratio of 1:1, and the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of the mixture were conducted at heating rates of 10, 20, 50 and 100 °C.min-1. The TGA results were fitted into the distributed activation energy model (DAEM). The activation energy and pre-exponential factor of the EFB-DFM blends were determined as 62.71 kJ mol-1 and 1.45 x107 s-1, respectively. Moreover, the thermo-kinetic parameters of the co-pyrolysis blends can be ranked from EFB-DFM-ZSM-5 > EFB-DFM-Ni > EFB-DFM.