Alternative Diesel from Waste Plastics

Abstract

The long term ambition of energy security and solidarity, coupled with the environmental concerns of problematic waste accumulation, is addressed via the proposed waste-to-fuel technology. Plastic waste is converted into automotive diesel fuel via a two-step thermochemical process based on pyrolysis and hydrotreatment. Plastic waste was pyrolyzed in a South East Asia plant rendering pyrolysis oil, which mostly consisted of middle-distillate (naphtha and diesel) hydrocarbons. The diesel fraction (170–370 °C) was fractionated, and its further upgrade was assessed in a hydroprocessing pilot plant at the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH) in Greece. The final fuel was evaluated with respect to the diesel fuel quality specifications EN 590, which characterized it as a promising alternative diesel pool component with excellent ignition quality characteristics and low back end volatility.

Keywords

• waste plastics
• pyrolysis
• hydrotreating
• fuels
• renewable diesel
• waste-to-fuel