[sr71_4ever]

Hi all,

I'm working on a project where I have to heat up plastics (I could say boil) into gas. I want to boil these plastics in an oxygen free environment. I have done a little research, and this is what I think is my process. The boiling of the plastics without the involvement of oxygen is called pyrolysis, and the gas that is produced from this is called syngas, am I correct? If so, I would like to know what are compounds that make up this gas. I have researched and found that some of the products are fossil fuels such as diesel and kerosine. How can I know what is contained within the gas? If the process is not pyrolysis, what is it then? And how can I know what the gas is made of? Would really appreciate the answer from you experts.

[discodermolide]

Hi all,

I'm working on a project where I have to heat up plastics (I could say boil) into gas. I want to boil these plastics in an oxygen free environment. I have done a little research, and this is what I think is my process. The boiling of the plastics without the involvement of oxygen is called pyrolysis, and the gas that is produced from this is called syngas, am I correct? If so, I would like to know what are compounds that make up this gas. I have researched and found that some of the products are fossil fuels such as diesel and kerosine. How can I know what is contained within the gas? If the process is not pyrolysis, what is it then? And how can I know what the gas is made of? Would really appreciate the answer from you experts.

Have a look at this Wiki page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngas
and this one for pyrolysis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolysis
The gas composition can be measured by running the gas through a GC/MS instrument.

[Arkcon]

If your starting point is a word like "plastics" which means thousands of different products, you can't reasonably expect a single, simple defined product from a simple chemical procedure (pyrolysis.)  Also, terms like diesel and kerosine are not simple products, but actually general terms for mixtures.  A gas chromatograph will let you know the composition, but they don't spit out answers like "diesel" and "kerosine."