Ignacio Aracil-Sáez

• PhD Chemical Engineering
• Professor (Associate) at University of Alicante

The drying of flexible plastic waste is a current industrial problem in the plastic recycling sector. The thermal drying of plastic flakes is considered the most expensive and the most energy-consuming step in the recycling chain, which represents an environmental issue. This process is already present on the industrial scale but not well described...

The debromination of waste circuit boards (WCBs) used in computer motherboards and components has been studied with two different pieces of equipment. Firstly, the reaction of small particles (around one millimeter in diameter) and larger pieces obtained from WCBs was carried out with several solutions of K2CO3 in small non-stirred batch reactors a...

Multilayer flexible packaging waste is a critical issue in the field of waste management as it is considered a non-recyclable material. One of the solutions to increase its recyclability is the delamination, which allows the recycling of the different polymer layers separately. This study investigated the optimization of the delamination by micrope...

An effective management of waste printed circuit board (WCB) recycling presents significant advantages of an economic, social, and environmental nature. This is particularly the case when a suitable valorisation is made of the non-metallic parts of the WCBs, well known for their “hidden” toxicological risks. Such benefits motivate research on techn...

The great economic, social, and environmental interest that favors an effective management of the recycling of waste printed circuit boards (WCBs) encourages research on the improvement of processes capable of mitigating their harmful effects. In this work, the debromination of large WCBs was first performed through a hydrothermal process employing...

Waste printed circuit boards (WCBs) were debrominated under hydrothermal treatment, using potassium carbonate as an alkaline additive to improve debromination efficiency (DE). Two different high-pressure reactors were used: a 1-L stirred reactor, where the evolution of the DE was followed over time at a low CO3²⁻/Br⁻ ratio (1:25), and an elementary...

Persistent organic pollutant inhibition in the combustion process of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by prior addition of an inhibitor is currently being studied, reducing the emission of pollutants, and thus reducing the large amount of waste PVC destined for landfill. In this work, the use of sewage sludge (SS) as an alternative to chemical inhibitors t...

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) waste generation has significantly increased in recent years and their disposal is considered a major environmental concern. Removal techniques of chlorine from PVC waste are being studied to minimize a negative environmental impact. In this work, the use of K2CO3 as an alkaline additive to improve the dechlorination effici...

Nanoscale zero valent iron (nZVI) has proven to be a promising solution for contaminant remediation, but its application is limited due to its high cost of synthesis and instability. Encapsulating the nZVI in carbon spheres generates more stable particles with improved properties due to the adsorption capacity provided by the carbon. The aim of thi...

Nanoparticles of zero-valent iron (nZVI) represent a promising agent for environmental remediation. This is due to their core-shell structure which presents the characteristics of both metallic and oxidised iron, leading to sorption and reductive precipitation of metal ions. Nevertheless, nZVI application presents some limitations regarding their r...

Studies show that nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) particles enhance the formation of chlorinated compounds such as polychlorinated dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs) during thermal processes. However, it is unclear whether nZVI acts as a catalyst for the formation of these compounds or contains impurities, such as PCDD/Fs, within its structure. We anal...

Mechanical treatments such as shredding or extrusion are applied to municipal solid wastes (MSW) to produce refuse-derived fuels (RDF). In this way, a waste fraction (mainly composed by food waste) is removed and the quality of the fuel is improved. In this research, simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) was used to investigate how different mechanic...

The present work has been carried out to verify the feasibility of thermal valorization of an automobile shredder residue (ASR). With this aim, the thermal decomposition of this waste has been studied in a laboratory scale reactor, analyzing the pollutants emitted under different operating conditions. The emission factors of carbon oxides, light hy...

The pyrolysis and combustion of automotive shredder residue (ASR) were studied by dynamic thermogravimetry and derivative thermogravimetry at heating rates of 5, 15 and 30 K min−1 at atmospheric pressure. For the simulation of pyrolysis and combustion processes, two different kinetic models are proposed. One of them is based on the distribution of...

PCDD/F emissions from three light-duty diesel vehicles – two vans and a passenger car – have been measured in on-road conditions. We propose a new methodology for small vehicles: a sample of exhaust gas is collected by means of equipment based on United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) method 23A for stationary stack emissions. The...

An exhaustive characterization of the biogas from some waste disposal facilities has been carried out. The analysis includes the main components (methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen) as well as trace components such as hydrogen sulphide, ammonia and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) including siloxanes and halogenated compounds. VOCs were...

In this work, zero-valent iron nanoparticles (50–200 nm) were synthesized for the complete reduction of dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) to give methane and iron sulfide. Iron quantity and pH were varied to study their influence on the reaction. A 60% reduction in DMDS was achieved, but it was observed that the desired reaction to give methane only occurr...

Thermal decomposition of polychloroprene was studied under inert and oxidative atmospheres at temperatures of 500 and 850 degrees C in a horizontal quartz tubular laboratory reactor in order to determine the products generated. More than two hundred compounds, mainly aromatic hydrocarbons, were identified and quantified, with special focus on chlor...

The influence of iron nanoparticles in the fuel-rich combustion of PVC has been studied in this work. Dynamic runs for PVC and the mixture PVC and iron nanoparticles were firstly carried out by TGA-MS in order to study the influence of iron on the compounds evolved in the thermal degradation of PVC. To complete the study both PVC and a mixture of P...

A comparison between different emission rates of various pollutants obtained from various wastes is presented. The studied wastes were the following: polyethylene (PE), tyres, sewage sludges, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), cotton textiles, polyester textiles, meat and bone meals (MBMs), varnish wastes, olive oil solid waste (pomace), waste lube oils and...

Thermal degradation experiments have been performed by thermogravimetry in order to study the kinetics of the decomposition of polychloroprene at different heating rates (5, 10 and 20 °C/min) and different atmospheres (N2, N2:O2 9:1 and N2:O2 4:1). Some of the experiments were partially conducted in isothermal conditions in order to cover a wider r...

Seventeen sewage sludges were studied to analyse, with the minimum number of steps, the organic pollutants that the European Union proposes to be controlled for land application. The compounds determined were a selection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); a selection of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP); no...

Emissions evolved from the pyrolysis and combustion of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) were studied at four different temperatures (500, 700, 850 and 1000 °C) in a horizontal laboratory tubular quartz reactor in order to analyse the influence of both temperature and reaction atmosphere on the final products from thermal and oxidative reactions. It was obs...

Pyrolysis and combustion of polyvinyl chloride resin have been studied by thermogravimetric analysis. Nine different runs with about 5mg sample mass have been carried out in three different atmospheres (He; He:O2 9:1; and He:O2 4:1) and heating rates (5, 10 and 20°C/min). Adequate kinetic simplified models have been proposed and all heating rates h...

The evolution of semivolatile and volatile compounds in the combustion of polyethylene (PE) was studied at different operating conditions in a horizontal quartz reactor. Four combustion runs at 500 and 850 degrees C with two different sample mass/air flow ratios and two pyrolytic runs at the same temperatures were carried out. Thermal behavior of d...

The evolution of semivolatile compounds and toxic by-products in the pyrolysis of polyethylene has been studied from 600 to 900°C. It has been tested that α,ω-olefin, α-olefin and n-paraffins are formed from the primary decomposition. At high temperatures, above 700–800°C, poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed. The compounds (PAHs) are wides...

RESUM (ABSTRACT) En el curso 2010/2011 se constituyó una red docente cuyo objetivo fue el seguimiento y coordinación del primer curso del Grado en Ingeniería Química, que había comenzado a planificarse un curso antes. En líneas generales, una de las principales conclusiones obtenidas a partir de dicha red, fue la idoneidad de llevar a cabo un segui...

RESUMEN Fruto de la experiencia acumulada por varios profesores del departamento de Ingeniería Química, que a su vez son tutores del plan de acción tutorial de la universidad de Alicante, surge la necesidad de desarrollar una plataforma en la que se puedan tratar distintos aspectos de interés para los alumnos, y que año tras año dan lugar a consult...

Comunicación presentada en el 25th International Symposium on Halogenated Environmental Organic Pollutants and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) – DIOXIN 2005, Toronto, August 21-26, 2005