Influence of Temperature on the Composition and Calorific Value of Gases Produced during the Pyrolysis of Waste Pharmaceutical Blisters

Waste pharmaceutical blisters (WPBs) are a type of multimaterial waste that contain layers of plastic and metal connected permanently. The separation of those materials with the application of mechanical methods is impossible. One of the methods that can be used to recover metal from WPBs is pyrolysis-a thermal decomposition process performed in the absence of oxygen. The products are a solid fraction that contain char and metal, liquid fraction, and gases. The gases produced during the process can be used as a fuel, either alone or mixed with another gaseous fuel such as natural gas. The presented research was focused on the determination of the influence of the process temperature on the composition of gases produced during the pyrolysis of two types of pharmaceutical blister waste: pre- and postconsumer. The postconsumer waste contains trace amounts of pharmaceutical products. One of the goals was to determine whether those compounds influence the gas properties. The method of neutralizing these materials can be part of the circular economy, the idea of which is to strive to maximize the use of natural resources and bring them back into circulation. The presented method allows not only to recover char, oil, and metal that can be easily separated from the solid fraction, but also to reuse the process gases as a fuel and, possibly, to form HCl during the decomposition of PVC. The paper includes the analysis of the input material, as well as a detailed chemical analysis of the produced gases.