Development and evaluation of an integrated waste to energy system based on polyethylene plastic wastes pyrolysis for production of hydrogen fuel and other useful commodities

The present study aims to develop a renewable energy based multigenerational waste to energy system based on the pyrolysis of polyethylene plastic wastes. The developed system is assessed and simulated using the Aspen Plus and Engineering Equation Solver software packages. The proposed system utilizes the pyrolysis of plastic wastes to generate syngas as opposed to traditionally less environmentally friendly waste handling techniques. Syngas is processed through a series of subsystems to produce various useful outputs of hydrogen, electricity, heating, domestic hot water, and fresh water. The developed system is evaluated and examined thermodynamically to determine its usefulness for implementation. Both energy and exergy analyses are performed in detail to examine the whole system. The system generates power using a wind turbine, which is then used to pyrolyze waste plastic. The proposed system can potentially generate 27,888 kW of power. The syngas is processed through a hydrogen production unit to produce hydrogen at a rate of 1.53 kg/s. Additionally, a sub-system for water desalination is included to produce fresh water using reverse osmosis. As a result, the system produces 12 kg/s of fresh water. The overall energy and exergy efficiencies of the system are determined to be 55.85 % and 43.04 %, respectively.