Co-liquefaction of synthetic polyethylene and polyethylene bags with sugarcane bagasse under supercritical conditions: A comparative study

This study aims to investigate the co-liquefaction of high-density polyethylene (PE) and low density polyethylene bags (PB) with sugarcane bagasse (SCB) in supercritical ethanol solvent. The effect of blending ratios of SCB/PB and SCB/PE is studied. Results indicate that blending ratio of low density plastic bags and high-density polyethylene impacts the product distribution during solvo-thermal process. The optimum conversion of SCB/PE and SCB/PB up to 57.3% and 59.4% with bio-oil yields of 31.5% and 30.3% respectively are obtained at 280 °C. The higher heating values (HHV) of bio-oil obtained from SCB/PE and SCB/PB are 34.9 and 34.8 MJ/kg, respectively. CHNS/O, chemical composition, carbon and proton NMR, Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses of bio-oil have been conducted. Investigation suggests that the SCB/PE and SCB/PB derived bio-oil have the superior qualitative properties compared to pure sugarcane bagasse.