Circular economy for plastic waste to polypropylene via refinery FCC unit

A process for converting waste plastic into chemicals useful in preparing polypropylene, comprising:

• (a) selecting waste plastics containing polyethylene and/or polypropylene;
• (b) preparing a homogeneous liquid blend of petroleum and the selected plastic, with the blend comprising about 20 wt. % or less of the selected plastic by mixing the petroleum and waste plastic at a temperature above the melting point of the waste plastic in a preparation unit;
• and
• (c) passing the blend from the preparation unit to a refinery FCC unit.

A continuous process for converting waste plastic into recycle for polypropylene polymerization comprising:

• (a) selecting waste plastics comprising polyethylene and/or polypropylene;
• (b) preparing a homogeneous liquid blend of petroleum and the selected waste plastic with the blend comprising about 20 wt. % or less of the selected waste plastic by mixing the petroleum and waste plastic at a temperature above the melting point of the waste plastic in a preparation unit;
• (c) passing the blend from the preparation unit at a temperature above the melting point of the plastic to a feed pretreater unit for a refinery FCC unit;
• (d) recovering a heavy fraction from the feed pretreater unit and passing the heavy fraction to a refinery FCC unit;
• (e) recovering a liquid petroleum gas C3 olefin/paraffin mixture from the FCC unit;
• (f) separating the C3 paraffin and C3 olefin into different fractions;
• and
• (g) passing the C3 olefin to a propylene polymerization reactor.

A process for converting waste plastic into recycle for preparation of lower carbon footprint fuels, comprising:

• (a) selecting waste plastics containing polyethylene and/or polypropylene;
• (b) preparing a homogeneous liquid blend of petroleum and the selected plastic, with the blend comprising about 20 wt. % or less of the selected plastic by mixing the petroleum and waste plastic at a temperature above the melting point of the waste plastic in a preparation unit;
• and
• (c) passing the blend from the preparation unit to a refinery FCC unit, and recovering fractions from the FCC unit to prepare lower carbon footprint fuels which include gasoline, jet fuel diesel, and/or marine oil.

A continuous process for converting waste plastic into recycle for polypropylene polymerization comprising:

• (a) selecting waste plastics comprising polyethylene and/or polypropylene;
• (b) preparing a blend of petroleum and the selected waste plastic in a preparation unit with the blend comprising about 20 wt. % or less of the selected waste plastic by heating the waste plastic above the melting point of the plastic and mixing with petroleum, and then cooling the blend to a temperature below the melting point of the waste plastic;
• (c) heating the blend prepared in (b) to a temperature above the melting point of the plastic to create a homogeneous liquid blend and then passing the blend from the preparation unit at a temperature above the melting point of the plastic to a refinery FCC unit;
• (d) recovering a liquid petroleum gas C3 olefin/paraffin mixture from the FCC unit;
• (e) separating the C3 paraffin and C3 olefin into different fractions;
• and
• (f) passing the C3 olefin to a propylene polymerization reactor.