Nanocarbon production from polyethylene (PE) plastic bag waste using flame synthesis reactor.

In Indonesia, more than 26 thousand tons of polyethylene (PE) packaging plastic bags are disposed of into the environment per day. Nanocarbon technology is one solution. Flame synthesis reactor is a method for nanocarbon production. Flame synthesis using argon as a carrier gas and oxygen gas as co-feed gas to produce carbon monoxide (CO) as a source of precursors for the growth of nanocarbon. Oxygen as a co-feed were injected in this reactor for increasing CO. Stainless steel (SS304) is used as a substrate of catalytic media at a temperature of 800°C for 1 hour. Nanocarbon characterized by FTIR, TEM, and XRD. The result of the optimum conditions in pyrolisis of plastic bag waste was obtained at a temperature of 450°C in 10 minutes. The perfomance of flame synthesis reactor showed that carbon nanotubes, onion holow core, quasi-spherical are dominated of nanocarbon with 30% yield. This shows that the flame synthesis reactor is capable for producing CNT nanocarbon based on PE plastic bag waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]