Prediction of Pyrolysis Oil Yield from Plastic Waste using Artificial Neural Network (ANN)
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Ejiroghene Kelly Orhorhoro 
Andrew Amagbor Erameh 
Early Ufuoma Emifoniye 

Abstract

Plastic pollution has various negative effects, including significant ecological disruptions and the degradation of landscapes. An alternative to managing plastic waste (PW) is pyrolysis. In this study, the application of artificial neural network (ANN) for the pyrolysis of PW was investigated. The amount of pyrolysis oil yield (POY) from 0.5 kg to 5 kg of PW were determined. The Levenberg-Marquardt back propagation training algorithm (trainlm) was used to train the ANN using MATLAB R2022b ANN Toolbox. The POY is the output, and the input sets were temperature (T), pressure (P), particle sizes (PS), flow rate (FR), residence time (RT), heating rate (HR), and PW. The usefulness of the model for POY was demonstrated by the study effort, which verified the performance of the developed ANN models. The best validation performance's mean squared error (MSE) was 0.0060125. The ANN regression plots with an R2 of more than 0.998 also demonstrates excellent results. The suitability of the ANN model for precise estimation of POY from PW is shown by the high values of the coefficient of determination (R²). The study demonstrates that ANN is a versatile and effective technique for deciphering intricate pyrolysis data and maximizing the output of high value oil by optimizing operating conditions.

Article Details

Orhorhoro, E. K., Erameh, A. A., & Emifoniye, E. U. (2026). Prediction of Pyrolysis Oil Yield from Plastic Waste using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). African Journal of Environmental Sciences and Renewable Energy, 22(1), 34-51. https://doi.org/10.62154/ajesre.2026.022.01012
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Copyright (c) 2026 Ejiroghene Kelly Orhorhoro, Andrew Amagbor Erameh, Early Ufuoma Emifoniye (Author)

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