Desenvolvimento de um reator de pirólise em escala de bancada para tratamento de resíduos sólidos urbanos

Abstract

The production of municipal solid waste (MSW) is increasing every year, along with the increase of goods consumption and production. Nearly 41% of these MSW are incorrectly disposed, causing huge negative impacts on the whole environment. In order to diminish these impacts, new means of treatment and reuse of MSW has been studied and developed. A treatment proposed by the National Solid Waste Plan (PNRS, 2011) is energy recovery. This process can happen through pyrolysis, which consists on the thermal degradation of the material on an inert atmosphere, under high temperatures, resulting in gas, coal and oil, all of which combustible. In this way, this work sought to develop a pyrolysis reactor for energy recovery of MSW. For this, a stainless steel reactor coupled to a heating system was made. Experiments were performed, in batch and continuous regime, until 550ºC. This process proved to be capable of converting MSW to materials such as bio-oil and coal. The conversion was better in batch regime due to problems in material transport, such as material getting stuck inside the feeder. Besides that, it was identified the need for adjustments in the feeding and heating system for a better process control, and, consequently, a better products obtainment.