Microwave Pyrolysis of Municipal Solid Wastes

Roger Ruan, Professor
Paul Chen, Senior Research Associate
Fei Yu, Research Assistant
Alf Tunheim, Research Assistant
Yuhong Li, Visiting scholar
Xiangyang Lin, The Key Laboratory of Food Science of Ministry of Education, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
Dajiang Zhao, Visiting Scholar

Funding source

Private Gifts

Objective

The purpose of the project was to evaluate the feasibility of microwave pyrolysis of municipal solid wastes (MSW).

Need or Impact

Municipal solid wastes (MSW) are a potential resource for energy and heat production. However, MSWs are not homogeneous and cannot be processed directly by most of the current biomass conversion technologies. Microwave pyrolysis offers an efficient way to produce gases, oils, and chemicals from MSWs and biomass. Microwaves can heat objects more uniformly than conventional heating methods and is robust to sample uniformity and size. Therefore microwave pyrolysis offers an excellent alternative to conventional pyrolysis for MSW processing.

Project Status

Completed.