(159c) Plastic Waste to Cracking Feedstock, Potential Contaminants

Processing plastic waste into oil that can be use as feedstock to steam cracking is an alternative that is gaining attention. The prospect of this process, although at an embryonic stage is believed to provide a significant boost in the overall waste plastic recycle yield when compare to existing methodologies. However, this potential new feedstock to steam cracker comes with a number of contaminants, which would likely impact the reliability and performance of ethylene plants. This paper is a high-level discussion on the potential of using waste plastic as feedstock and the contaminants that can be expected.