SHIPPING FUEL PRODUCED FROM SECONDARY POLYMER RAW MATERIALS

Abstract

The article considers the possibility of expanding the raw material base of the production of motor fuels, particularly the fuels for shipping due to the use of secondary polymer raw materials. It was established that this raw material, which is represented by various polyolefins, is characterized by the absence or rather low (up to 150–200 ppm) content of sulfur-containing compounds.
 Therefore, according to such an indicator as the sulfur content, using thermal or catalytic pyrolysis technologies in a reactor-type apparatus, it is possible to obtain fuels from secondary polymer raw materials, which in terms of sulfur content (0.5 % and 0.1 %, respectively) will correspond to marine gasoil (MGO) or low sulfur marine gasoil (LS-MGO).
 It was experimentally established that the products of thermal pyrolysis of secondary polymer raw materials contain up to 30–40 % of olefinic hydrocarbons, which have low chemical stability and increased hygroscopicity compared to paraffinic and naphthenic hydrocarbons. Given their properties, such products should only be used as components of marine fuels. The products of catalytic pyrolysis (the process was carried out using the ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst) of secondary polymer raw materials, on the contrary, have high chemical stability due to the low (up to 3 %) content of olefinic hydrocarbons. But, at the same time, they contain up to 15 % aromatic hydrocarbons in their composition, which does not exceed the generally accepted restrictions on their content in motor fuels.
 It has been determined that the initial boiling point of the obtained fractions is the main parameter, which can be used to regulate some quality indicators of the products obtained. Its increase significantly reduces hygroscopicity and increases the flash point of the obtained products. However, it is not advisable to significantly increase this indicator, given the decrease in the yield of the target product (increasing the boiling point of the fraction by only 1 °C leads to a decrease in its yield by 0.275–0.325 %).