Iranian Scientists Develop Multifunctional Co-Pyrolysis Device to Recycle Worthless Landfill Waste
“In fact, the main product of the knowledge-based company is the multifunctional co-pyrolysis system which has been designed and manufactured for the management and recycling of various types of reject waste (worthless landfill waste) related to various fields like municipal, hospital, industrial, agricultural, refinery, etc.,” Ali Khani, a PhD graduate of the department of Applied Chemistry and a faculty member of the Islamic Azad University’s Mianeh branch, told ANA.
“We have produced a continuous non-separable model of the high-performance co-pyrolysis system for the first time in Iran and the world which was implemented as a pilot in the new city of Sahand for urban waste and under the supervision of municipal officials, and the results were completely satisfactory,” he added.
“The new product enjoys two main differences compared to similar domestic and foreign systems and it is continuous, meaning that it operates 24 hours a day, without shutdown, which in fact reduces energy consumption and greenhouse gas production,” Khani said.
In a relevant development in December, Iranian researchers at Amirkabir University of Technology had also found a green method based on environmentally friendly catalysts for recycling plastic waste which reduces the 500-year-long time needed to return these materials to the nature to a much shorter time and they can be converted into monomers for chemical industries to produce plastic.
“Plastics and bottles enter nature after consumption and require about 400 to 500 years, and this long time causes pollution and other problems like microplastics,” Tayyebeh Sangchi, a graduate of Amirkabir University's Faculty of Chemistry in the field of Applied Chemistry.
“In this research project, in order to recycle and recover plastic materials, used polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are converted into raw materials. These raw materials are monomers that are reused in PET production and have the ability to enter the natural cycle and be processed in nature,” she added.
“Following the recycling stage, we enter the recovery stage, in which the monomers are used to remanufacture the PET bottle. The recycling stage can also be continued so that the monomers are converted into primary compounds such as biomass,” Sangchi said.
She explained that recycling in this method consists of two stages, noting, “First, mechanical recycling which involves crushing the PET bottle, and second, the chemical recycling which is defined by exposing the bottle fragments to a chemical environment.”
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