2025 Spring Meeting and 21st Global Congress on Process Safety

(47d) Plastic Pyrolysis Oils As Feedstock for Steam Crackers: Opportunities and Challenges

Authors

This conference contribution explores the use of plastic pyrolysis oils as feedstock for steam crackers, with a focus on opportunities and challenges. Currently, plastic waste is a global challenge, and plastic pyrolysis offers a way to process waste that cannot be recycled mechanically or by recovery of monomers. However, the quality of these pyrolysis oils can vary widely depending on the plastic feedstock, pyrolysis technology, and pre- and post-treatments applied.

Three main pillars of knowledge are presented, which are necessary for evaluating these pyrolysis oils as feedstocks for steam crackers. First, the detailed analytics of plastic pyrolysis oils is explored, emphasizing it’s relevance on contaminants management and yield prediction. Second, the requirement of pilot testing is highlighted, which contributes to further insights regarding performance of pretreatment and cracking behavior. Finally, the conference contribution shows, how well-established and wide-ranging design know-how for the furnace, separation section, and purification requirements is utilized to transfer the pyrolysis oil evaluation into a sound overall process concept.

In addition, the influence of possible pre-treatment/purification on quality of plastic pyrolysis oils and on yields in steam cracking will be presented together with evaluation of overall material balance.

The conference contribution emphasizes the importance of a holistic evaluation of these feedstocks to ensure safe, reliable, and cost-effective plant operations.