With the continuous increase in global solid waste generation, conventional disposal technologies have increasingly shown limitations in environmental performance, resource utilization, and economic efficiency. In this study, the co-pyrolysis of four representative multi-source wastes, namely medical protective clothing (MPC), agricultural plastic film mainly composed of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), municipal sludge (SS), and municipal solid waste (MSW), was investigated. An Aspen Plus-based comparative model was established to examine eight co-pyrolysis scenarios, with emphasis on the effects of temperature and blending-ratio redistribution on product distribution and major pollutant output. At 500 °C, increasing the total fraction of SS and MSW from 20.0 to 80.0 wt% increased the yields of pyrolysis gas and pyrolysis oil by 6.5 wt% and 5.1 wt%, respectively, while the yield of char decreased by 11.6 wt%. Among the evaluated co-pyrolysis pathways, the condition with MPC: LDPE: SS: MSW = 40:40:10:10 showed the lowest CO₂ emission of 425.01 kg and the lowest SO₂ emission of 2.0 kg during the production of 1 t of char, and it also exhibited favorable combined environmental and economic performance within the present comparative framework. Under the adopted screening-level economic assumptions, the cumulative cash flow of this pathway became positive from the fourth quarter. In addition, a conceptual waste-pyrolysis/coal-fired-boiler coupling route was outlined as a possible downstream application scenario. Overall, this study clarified product-regulation behavior in multi-source waste co-pyrolysis and provided process-level support for comparative pathway screening under a unified modelling framework.
Ti et al. (Tue,) studied this question.