Design of a process for steam gasification of PVC waste

One possibility for recycling of PVC waste is steam gasification in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor. The main products are syngas, employable for energy recovery and HCl that can be reused for PVC production in an oxychlorination plant. In this study the technical and economical feasibility of this process is investigated based on experimental data and the implementation of proven technology where possible. The design capacity is 50 kton waste/year. Mass and energy balances were determined by the simulation software package Aspen Plus. Equipment costs of the simulated equipment are estimated and the gate fee of the PVC waste is calculated with a discounted cash flow analysis. The produced syngas proves to have a heating value of 8.6 MJ/Nm(3). Half of the chlorine, present in PVC waste, can be regained as pure HCl gas. The rest leaves the process as CaCl2 waste due to the presence of lime, added as a filler material to many PVC compounds. The total investment costs are 10 million EUR. The gate fee, needed to obtain an internal rate of return of 15%, is established at about 67 EUR. The gate fee proves to be very sensitive for variation in the investment costs and is strongly affected by the costs of CaCl2 disposal. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.