Description :
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This paper presents an extensive review of the scientific literature associated
with various microwave pyrolysis applications in waste to energy engineering. It
was established that microwave-heated pyrolysis processes offer a number of advantages
over other processes that use traditional thermal heat sources. In particular, microwave-heated
processes show a distinct advantage in providing rapid and energy-efficient heating
compared to conventional technologies, and thus facilitating increased production
rates. It can also be established that the pyrolysis process offers an exciting
way to recover both the energetic and chemical value of the waste materials by generating
potentially useful pyrolysis products suitable for future reuse. Furthermore, this
review has revealed good performance of the microwave pyrolysis process when compared
to other more conventional methods of operation, indicating that it shows exceptional
promise as a means for energy recovery from waste materials. Nonetheless, it was
revealed that many important characteristics of the microwave pyrolysis process
have yet to be raised or fully investigated. In addition, limited information is
available concerning the characteristics of the microwave pyrolysis of waste materials.
It was thus concluded that more work is needed to extend existing understanding
of these aspects in order to develop improvements to the process to transform it
into a commercially viable route to recover energy from waste materials in an environmentally
sustainable manner.
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