Plastic waste pyrolysis with liquid recycle
AssigneeExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc.
InventorsBryan A. Patel, Randolph J. Smiley, Saurabh S. Maduskar, Sundararajan Uppili, Michael W. Weber
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Abstract
Systems and methods are provided for conversion of polymers (such as plastic waste) to olefins. The systems and methods can include a recycle loop so that a portion of the pyrolysis effluent can be combined with solid plastic feedstock. The input flow to the pyrolysis reactor can correspond to a slurry of plastic particles in recycled effluent or a solution of plastic in recycled effluent.
Claims17
A method for performing pyrolysis on a plastic feedstock, comprising:
- mixing a feedstock comprising plastic particles having an average diameter of 3.0 cm or less with a recycled effluent fraction to form a slurry of plastic particles in recycled effluent, a weight ratio of the recycled effluent fraction to the plastic particles being 1.0 or more, the mixing being performed at a temperature of 150° C. or less;
- introducing the slurry of plastic particles in recycled effluent into a fluidized bed pyrolysis reactor for non-catalytic pyrolysis, the slurry of plastic particles in recycled effluent being exposed to a temperature of 200° C. or more for a thermal residence time from 0.1 second to 30 seconds prior to the introduction into the fluidized bed pyrolysis reactor;
- pyrolyzing the slurry of plastic particles in recycled effluent in the fluidized bed pyrolysis reactor at a temperature of 500° C. to 900° C. to form a pyrolysis effluent, the fluidized bed comprising heat transfer particles, the pyrolysis conditions comprising a single pass conversion of 15 wt % to 50 wt % relative to a conversion temperature of 370° C. or less;
- separating at least a portion of the heat transfer particles from the pyrolysis effluent;
- and
- separating the pyrolysis effluent to form a bottoms fraction comprising the recycled effluent fraction and at least one additional fraction, the bottoms fraction comprising a T10 distillation point of the conversion temperature or less.
A method for performing pyrolysis on a plastic feedstock, comprising:
- mixing a feedstock comprising plastic particles having an average diameter of 3.0 cm or less with a recycled effluent fraction to form a slurry of plastic in recycled effluent, a weight ratio of the recycled effluent fraction to the plastic particles being 0.2 or more, wherein the mixing comprises heating the feedstock and the plastic particles to a temperature of 120° C. or more for a mixing residence time from 1 second to 600 seconds;
- introducing the solution of plastic in recycled effluent into a pyrolysis reactor for non-catalytic pyrolysis;
- pyrolyzing the slurry in the pyrolysis reactor under pyrolysis conditions comprising a temperature of 500° C. to 900° C. to form a pyrolysis effluent, the pyrolysis conditions comprising a single pass conversion of 40 wt % or less relative to a conversion temperature of 370° C. or less;
- and
- separating the pyrolysis effluent to form a bottoms fraction comprising the recycled effluent fraction and at least one additional fraction, the bottoms fraction comprising a T10 distillation point of the conversion temperature or less.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.