Paweł Stępień, PhD student at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology of the University of Life Sciences in Wrocław wants to create a mathematical model of the low-temperature pyrolysis process. The project “Energy balance of low-temperature pyrolysis of organic waste” received a grant from the Prelude 14 program of the National Science Center.

The aim of the project is to determine the energy consumption of pyrolysis for 30 types of materials included in municipal waste – including kitchen waste, paper, plastics and their mixtures using thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry.

– In simpler terms, I will heat waste samples up to 500 degrees Celsius in an inert gas atmosphere and record their mass decreases and the amount of energy necessary to undergo the process – says PhD student. He adds that the research was undertaken because pyrolysis is considered as a future-proof method of thermal utilization of waste.