Analysis, Evaluation and Processing Characteristics of Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Oil

To achieve high-value processing and utilization of different types of waste plastic pyrolysis oils in the chemical recycling of waste plastics, this study focuses on three typical waste plastic pyrolysis oils prepared from raw materials such as waste agricultural film, municipal waste plastics, and paper mill waste plastics, from which the conventional whole fraction oil has been analyzed in terms of physicochemical properties, element composition, and impurity types. Moreover, the pyrolysis oils were cut into gasoline, diesel and vacuum gas oil fractions by true boiling point distillation, and the molecular composition of each fraction was characterized in details. The results show that the gasoline and diesel fractions of the three waste plastic pyrolysis oils, which contain large amounts of olefins, account for 60% to 80%. Pyrolysis oil from waste agricultural films is a premium raw material for steam cracking since it contains few impurities like silicon and chlorine and a small amount of cycloalkanes and aromatics. In contrast to Shengli mixed crude oil, the waste plastic pyrolysis oils from municipal waste and paper mills have a higher concentration of oxygen, silicon, and chlorine and a lower concentration of sulfur and nitrogen. Silicon and chlorine are present in the form of organic matter and mainly exist in gasoline fractions. According to the composition characteristics, the gasoline fraction of pyrolysis oils from municipal waste can be used as reforming feedstock, and the vacuum gas oil of three pyrolysis oils can be utilized as catalytic cracking feedstock. Due to the high oxygen content, the waste plastics pyrolysis oils from paper mills have poor processing performance. © 2024 Editorial Office of Acta Petrolei Sinica. All rights reserved.