Production of liquid fuel from plastic waste using integrated pyrolysis method with refinery distillation bubble cap plate column

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to optimise the liquid product of pyrolysis from as much as 500 g of polypropylene (PP) plastic waste, using a fixed bed type reactor in a vacuum condition (−3 mm H 2 O), to minimise the oxygen entering the reactor. The vapour flows through the 4-tray distillation bubble cap plate column for fractionation by utilising heat from the reactor. Process conditions at 500–650 °C and of 580 °C optimum liquid oil yield is 88 wt.%, comprising of kerosene in tray I with a volume of 350 ml, gasoline in tray II and III with a volume of 228 ml, and tray IV had no condensate. Gas yield is 5 wt.% and the rest is char. At the conditions between 500 °C and 560 °C, gasoline yield in 6–67 wt.% comprises of kerosene and gasoline. However, at process conditions between 600 °C and 650 °C yields of 64–83 wt.% comprising of diesel oil was obtained at tray I and II, while kerosene and gasoline were obtained in the next tray. The characteristics of fuel obtained from plastic such as density, viscosity, octane–cetane number, ash content and calorific value have similar properties with those of fossil fuels.