Quality improvement of pyrolysis oil from waste rubber by adding sawdust

•Rubber-pyrolysis oil is difficult to be fuel due to high proportion of PAHs.•The efficiency of pyrolysis was increased as the percentage of sawdust increased.•The adding of sawdust improved pyrolysis oil quality by reducing the PAHs content.•Adding sawdust reduced nitrogen/sulfur in oil and was easier to convert to diesel. This work was aimed at improving the pyrolysis oil quality of waste rubber by adding larch sawdust. Using a 1kg/h stainless pyrolysis reactor, the contents of sawdust in rubber were gradually increased from 0%, 50%, 100% and 200% (wt%) during the pyrolysis process. Using a thermo-gravimetric (TG) analyzer coupled with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis of evolving products (TG–FTIR), the weight loss characteristics of the heat under different mixtures of sawdust/rubber were observed. Using the pyrolysis–gas chromatography (GC)–mass spectrometry (Py–GC/MS), the vapors from the pyrolysis processes were collected and the compositions of the vapors were examined. During the pyrolysis process, the recovery of the pyrolysis gas and its composition were measured in-situ at a reaction temperature of 450°C and a retaining time of 1.2s. The results indicated that the efficiency of pyrolysis was increased and the residual carbon was reduced as the percentage of sawdust increased. The adding of sawdust significantly improved the pyrolysis oil quality by reducing the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nitrogen and sulfur compounds contents, resulting in an improvement in the combustion efficiency of the pyrolysis oil.