Economic Analysis of Fuel Oil Production from Pyrolysis of Waste Plastic

Abstract

The Global plastic production has reached up to 300 million tons in 2015, and waste management has become a serious issue especially in middle and low income countries such as Pakistan. Pakistan, which is producing 1.32 million ton/year of plastic waste, is also facing the issue of environmental pollution as well as unadequate waste dumping ability due to surge in urban population. Among various waste management techniques, pyrolysis has been receiving attention because it offers solution to two most critical problems, energy shortage and environmental pollution. The main purpose of this paper is to produce fuel oil by waste plastic through the pyrolysis process and its cost estimation. Waste plastic decomposes in a various fraction of hydrocarbons catalytically at 400oC. These hydrocarbons are separated through distillation columns and phase separators as light and heavy fuel oil and wax. The economic analysis shows that the estimated total capital investment required for a pyrolysis plant is $0.2 million, the estimated total production cost of pyrolysis plant is $1.6 million/year. The results shows that pyrolysis of waste plastic to produce fuel oil can be the viable solution to meet Pakistan’s energy demand as well as to solve waste dumping issue.