Spent cathode powder catalyzed co‐pyrolysis of P rosopis juliflora (Vilayati Babul) pods and waste LDPE for bio‐fuel production: Comprehensive thermogravimetric and kinetic study with ANN ‐based prediction and product characterization

Abstract The global community is increasingly concerned about the disposal of spent lithium‐ion batteries, as their improper disposal poses serious environmental hazards. Moreover, large amounts of waste plastic and biomass are generated every year, which again creates serious threat to the environment. To address these issues, proposed research focuses on examining the co‐pyrolysis of an invasive lignocellulosic biomass, Prosopis juliflora pods (PJ) with low‐density polyethylene (LDPE) using spent cathode powder (SCP) derived from waste lithium‐ion batteries as a catalyst. Thermogravimetric analysis was conducted at three different heating rates of 10, 20, and 30°C/min for the PJ and LDPE blend (1:1 wt.%), and SCP catalyst to feedstock (PJ & LDPE) blend (1:2 wt.%). Further, kinetic and thermodynamic investigations were conducted through the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) data, using the Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS), Ozawa–Flynn–Wall (OFW), and Starink methods. The catalytic effect of SCP greatly reduced the required activation energy, and the values for PJ + LDPE_SCP feedstock were 134.00, 129.09, and 129.47 kJ/mol using OFW, KAS, and Starink methods. For the catalytic process, Δ H ranged from 17.60 to 111.48 kJ/mol as the conversion level changed from 0.1 to 0.9. The average Δ G was 208.37 kJ/mol, and the average Δ S was −0.1126 kJ/mol/K. GC–MS and FTIR analysis revealed a marked reduction in oxygenated compounds in the bio‐oil from catalytic runs compared to non‐catalytic. The artificial neural network (ANN) model demonstrated high reliability with regression coefficient close to 0.99. The findings achieve the goal of efficiently dealing with the problem of plastic and electronic waste while producing value added fuels.