Pyrolysis-GCMS of Plastic and Paper Waste as Alternative Blast Furnace Reductants

This paper reports studies on the thermal chemistry of the flash pyrolysis (heating rate of 20,000 °C/s up to 800 °C) of non-fossil fuel carbon (NFF-C) waste (or refuse-derived fuel, RDF) in the context of using this as an alternative reductant for blast furnace ironmaking. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GCMS) analysis linked to the pyrolyser was used to simulate the thermal processes that take place during injection in the blast furnace raceway, where material experiences extreme temperature (ca. 1000 °C) over very short residence times (<300 ms). Species identification and qualitative analysis of evolved species generated are reported. Whilst the pyrolyser uses flash heating of a static sample, a drop tube furnace was also employed to study a sample moving rapidly through a pre-heated furnace held at 1000 °C to enable reductant burnout rates to be measured. The overarching aim of this piece of work is to study the suitability of replacing fossil fuel with non-recyclable plastic and paper as blast furnace reductants.