In the United States, millions of tons of waste plastics and tires are discarded every single year, filling our landfills and dumps with potential feedstocks. Coming up with an economical solution to get rid of all this waste is a problem that scientists and engineers have spent countless hours trying to crack. After years of research and testing, an answer to this riddle may have finally been reached: pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is a process that allows waste tires, waste plastics and biomass to be turned into pyrolysis oil as well as other useful products.
Waste Tires
What to do with old discarded tires is a growing problem in the United States, primarily because tires are extremely difficult to recycle. When stacked in fields they hold water and become breeding grounds for mosquitos. As more and more cars hit the road, the number of potential waste tires increase exponentially. Thankfully, pyrolysis offers us a way to turn these tires into something useful.
Tire pyrolysis oil, a valuable energy resource, accounts for almost 90% of the composition of waste tires. Instead of letting these materials go to waste, putting a tire through the pyrolysis process can help reclaim high percentages of pyrolysis oil and gas, as well as char or carbon black that these tires contain. The pyrolysis oil created can be used as marine fuel oil. The sulfur content must be checked prior to use.
Plastics
Plastics is another product that is accumulating landfills to an alarming degree, resulting in tremendous negative consequences for the environment. Fortunately, the long molecules that are the building blocks of most plastics are well suited to reclamation in a pyrolysis reactor. Plastics that are subjected to pyrolysis can produce a low sulphur diesel derivative that is high in cetane. Plastics pyrolysis oil is considered to be more environmentally friendly due to the lower sulphur content. Not only does this decrease of amount of plastics choking our landfills, it results in a highly useful energy product. Furthermore, hydrotreating the plastics pyrolysis and fractionation can produce diesel and naphtha similar to that derived from crude oil.
Biomass
Lastly, a very promising material in terms of energy reclamation is biomass. Biomass refers to any crops or biological waste products that can be used in the production of fuel. Currently, biomass is used to generate wood pyrolysis oil also. Wood pyrolysis oil can also be hydrotreated.
Navigating Creating a Pyrolysis Plant
When tasked with choosing the right pyrolyzer and upgrading pyrolysis oil, it’s very easy for a team or project manager to become overwhelmed. Many teams simply do not have the expertise that it takes to navigate the available choices, configurations and technology needed to get the job done right, which is why COSTELLO’s team of expert engineers is a perfect fit for your project. COSTELLO engineers possess the skills and the know-how to help you choose the correct configuration for your project, and can even help you set up the financial tools that allow you to determine ROI, IRR and what the payback period is for a given project.
Need plant operating costs? No problem.
COSTELLO can also team up with your vendors to ensure that products are delivered on time and in specification. Contact COSTELLO today to learn more.
Phone: 310-792-5870 Email: rcca@rccostello.com
Website: rccostello.com