Thermochemical recovery of propylene from plastic waste: A review

Abstract

Mitigating plastic waste pollution and reducing reliance on fossil resources have become more and more important. Propylene is one of the most crucial starting materials in chemical and petrochemical industries. Therefore, these industries can derive substantial benefit from the recovery of propylene from plastic waste in terms of enhancing sustainability. Thermochemical conversion process, such as pyrolysis, gasification, and steam cracking, is regarded as a representative effective approach to recover propylene from plastic waste (e.g., polyolefins and plastic mixtures). This work aimed to promote the adoption of the propylene recovery strategy in chemical/petrochemical sectors with highlighting the performance of various thermochemical conversion processes to obtain propylene from plastic waste. To this end, reputable peer-reviewed journals were searched with relevant keywords and strictly screened to find the data about the propylene recovery yield, the type of plastic waste, the type of process, and process operating conditions. Furthermore, current limitations are presented concerning future research towards improving the viability of thermochemical recovery of propylene from plastic waste. This review not only offers helpful guidelines on the development of effective platforms to produce value-added monomeric chemicals from plastic waste but also encourages the chemical industry to adopt the waste-upcycling approach on a wider scale.

Keywords

• Propene
• Polyolefins
• Renewable chemicals
• Chemical recycling
• Waste treatment