Design and development of an infrared heater for waste plastic gasification / by .

Abstract

This research outlines the design, manufacturing and analysis of a far infrared ceramic heater for waste plastic gasification. The study includes the theoretical overview which concentrated on the mathematical modelling of the far infrared ceramic heater, as well as mathematical modelling of infrared gasifier. Secondly, the study presents an overview of the manufacturing process of the ceramic infrared heaters. Testing of the manufactured heaters has been performed to validate the efficacy of the heaters. The model includes non-grey radiative heat transfer between the different parts of the heaters, conduction in ceramic material, convective cooling of the surface, surface balances, and blackbody radiation theories. Using infrared module voltage as input, model predictions of temperature and wavelengths using Fourier equations were found to agree well with experimental data. The ceramic infrared heaters developed in this research are fully functional and all intended test results were obtained. The spectral analyses of different plastics (Polyethylene terephthalate, Polypropylene, Low-density polyethylene and High-density polyethylene) have been performed. ‘Heat rate’ and ‘cool rate’ of the infrared ceramic heaters have also been characterised. Gasification of plastic waste as carbonaceous material, basic reactions during gasification of plastics, and gasification products have also been discussed, including gasifier properties. The results obtained from the experiments show that using infrared heaters in gasification is practically sound because of the ability of infrared radiation to gasify waste plastics and production of syngas. This project recommended the infrared radiation because of its high efficiency in gasification of waste plastic and the production of syngas. This article reviews the infrared radiation heating and discusses the theoretical aspects of infrared radiation and the validity of infrared radiation heating in gasification of waste plastics. This research also provides a review of literature in the applications and benefits of infrared heaters.