Pyrolysis Recovery of Waste Shipping Oil Using Microwave Heating

This study investigated the use of microwave pyrolysis as a recovery method for waste shipping oil. The influence of different process temperatures on the yield and composition of the pyrolysis products was investigated. The use of microwave heating provided a fast heating rate (40 degrees C/min) to heat the waste oil at 600 degrees C. The waste oil was pyrolyzed and decomposed to form products dominated by pyrolysis oil (up to 66 wt. %) and smaller amounts of pyrolysis gases (24 wt. %) and char residue (10 wt. %). The pyrolysis oil contained light C-9-C-30 hydrocarbons and was detected to have a calorific value of 47-48 MJ/kg which is close to those traditional liquid fuels derived from fossil fuel. The results show that microwave pyrolysis of waste shipping oil generated an oil product that could be used as a potential fuel.