The team of academicians and industrial partners at national and international levels collaborated to address the growing hazard of low-grade mixed plastic waste polluting land, air, and water. Conventional recycling cannot process mixed, contaminated plastics. Globally, plastic waste ranges from 69–221 kg per person, totaling ~350 million tonnes annually. Pakistan produced 3.9 million tons in 2020, with a 2 million ton market and imports worth $2.1 billion. Only 9% is recycled; the rest is landfilled or mismanaged. This challenge was viewed as an opportunity to convert plastic waste into naphtha-like hydrocarbons, reducing fossil fuel use. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) was selected due to higher yields, lower energy demand, and better efficiency than pyrolysis. The project supports local manufacturing, sustainable waste management, and reduced oil dependency. Collaboration includes BUITEMS, international partners, and industry for scalability and circular economy integration.

The primary objective of this research was to explore the indigenous coal and waste biomass resources for fuel production through a new route of microwave reaction pathways. For this, a microwave experimental setup for pyrolysis and co-pyrolysis applications was therefore developed and tested. In-situ and ex-situ catalytic pyrolysis and co-pyrolysis were carried out to test the bed temperature, product yield, and quality of the liquid and gas fuel obtained. Previous studies conducted on biofuel production by pyrolysis and co-pyrolysis of indigenous biomass and coal resources suffered serious problems, such as the presence of an external heating source to raise the biomass and coal samples to desired pyrolysis conditions at moderate to very slow heating rates. To address these concerns, a microwave pyrolysis and co-pyrolysis heating mechanism in the presence of a carbon-based microwave absorber was tested to raise the reaction temperature to pyrolysis conditions using microwave energy.

The primary objective of this research is to explore the indigenous coal and biomass resources for liquid fuel production. Pyrolysis and Co-pyrolysis methods was carried and tested for this purpose. Bed temperature, product yield and quality of the liquid fuel obtained from pyrolysis and co-pyrolysis methods was evaluated monitored.

PhD fellowship funded project