Characterisation of natural rubber waste for pyrolysis

Natural rubber is widely used in most parts of the world and a significant amount becomes post-consumer waste. Although it has its traditional uses, the waste is mostly either not utilised or under utilised. Thus in search of better utilisation of the waste, such as using pyrolysis to form liquid products, the locally available waste natural rubber has been physically characterised and its thermal behaviour investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. The present paper describes an attempt to derive the reaction kinetics for pyrolysis of waste natural rubber in a nitrogen atmosphere at different heating rates in the form of degree of reaction, rate of devolatilisation, and activation energy. In a comparative study, the physical properties of some selected biomass wastes locally available in Malaysia are also reviewed.