(473c) Design and Simulation of Thermo-Chemical Plastic Waste Recycling to Produce Di-Methyl Ether (DME)

The extent of plastics use in everyday life is evident by the fact that the annual global plastic production has exceeded 350 million tons. Most of the plastic materials ends up in landfills after their use and approximately 3 % of global plastic production has littered the oceans causing negative impacts on the environment and marine life. The projected continuous increase in the production of plastics due to their versatile applications also represents an economic opportunity by recycling them while addressing the adverse environmental concerns. Currently employed mechanical recycling techniques have limitations because of poorer product quality after each cycle. Hence, chemical recycling of plastic waste has been an active area of research recently.

In this study, we investigated the thermochemical plastic recycling processes namely, gasification. This study rigorously modeled and simulated the thermochemical processes that can recycle the plastic wastes efficiently to useful chemical such as di-methyl ether (DME). Currently, the cost of recycled plastic is not competitive compared to the fossil-based virgin plastics, which leads to the lack of industrial willingness for recycling. This study explored the technical and economic factors that can improve the economics of the recycled plastics. The design of reactors followed by the separation train was conducted to decrease exergy losses and improve the overall efficiencies. The results show that the gasification can provide a competitive solution with flexibility in terms of waste feed composition to produce DME at a large scale.