Characteristics of fractionated drop-in liquid fuel of plastic wastes from a commercial pyrolysis plant

• Published in: Waste management (Elmsford) 2021-05, Vol.126, p.411-422
• Main Authors: Lee, Doyeon, Nam, Hoseok, Wang, Shuang, Kim, Hana, Kim, Jung Hwan, Won, Yooseob, Hwang, Byung Wook, Kim, Young Doo, Nam, Hyungseok, Lee, Kyong-Hwan, Ryu, Ho-Jung
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: CO2 carbon footprint; Distillation; Fractionation; Plastic waste; Pyrolysis oil
• ISSN: 0956-053X; 1879-2456
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2021.03.020

[Display omitted] •Comprehensive physical and chemical properties of plastic pyrolysis fuel studied.•Relationship between boiling point and vapor temperature during separation was found.•Best HHV was 44.6 MJ/kg with 3.6 cSt for viscosity and 12 mg/g for TAN.•Above 40% of olefins included in lighter fractions (C25 for the heavy distillate (fraction 4). The relationship between the fuel boiling point and liquid vapor temperature were found for designing a scaled-up oil separation process. The diesel grade pyrolysis fuel fraction comprised approximately 70–80% of the crude pyrolysis fuel, wherein it had values of 43–45 MJ/kg, 1–6 cSt, and 12–42 mgKOH/goil. Meanwhile, the elemental ratios of the crude pyrolysis oil improved to 0.1 for O/C and 1.9 for H/C after separation, close to petroleum fuels (0.0 O/C and 1.95 H/C). The highest relative chemical composition was the olefins (46% in fraction 1 and 41% in fraction 2), whereas the paraffin was approximately 15–20% in the light fraction. Finally, the potential CO2 reduction for the plastic waste-to-energy process was evaluated, revealing that a total of 0.26 tCO2/tonwaste of emissions could be avoided during the waste plastic pyrolysis process.