Upgraded Fuel from Microwave Assisted Pyrolysis of Waste Tire

Microwave assisted pyrolysis (MAP) of waste tires is an alternative or a complementary way to other physical and thermal recycling processes. MAP transforms tires in three useful classes of products: a solid, a liquid and a gas. Among them, liquid is the most attractive due to its hydrocarbon composition useful as fuel or source of chemicals. Pyrolysis experiments were carried out in a batch laboratory scale using a microwave (MW) oven operating at 2.45 GHz, an energy output up to 6 KW and a fractionating system directly connected to the pyrolysis oven. The presence of the fractionating system let us to obtain a liquid with low density (from 0.92 to 0.88 g/cm3), and viscosity (from 3.92 to 1.25 cP). Chemical composition was also affected by the presence of a fractionating system leading to high yields of aromatic and olefinic compounds. Finally different tires affected the MAP results: Tires containing a large amount of aromatics (styrene copolymers) were pyrolyzed faster than tire rich in natural rubber.