Thermal conversion of waste polyolefins to the mixture of hydrocarbons in the reactor with molten metal bed

Energy crisis and environmental degradation by polymer wastes have been imperative to find and propose technologies for recovery of raw materials and energy from non-conventional sources like organic wastes, plastic wastes, scrap tires, etc. A variety of methods and processes connected with global or national policies have been proposed worldwide. A new type of a tubular reactor with the molten metal bed is proposed for conversion of waste plastics to fuel like mixture of hydrocarbons. The results of the thermal degradation of polyolefins in the laboratory scale set-up based on this reactor are presented in the paper. The melting and cracking processes were carried out in a single apparatus at the temperature 390–420 °C. The problems with: disintegration of wastes, heat transfer from the wall to the particles of polymers, cooking at the walls of reactor, and mixing of the molten volume of wastes were significantly reduced. The final product consisted of gaseous stream (8–16 wt% of the input) and liquid (84–92 wt%) stream. No solid products were produced. The light, “gasoline” fraction of the liquid hydrocarbons mixture (C4–C10) made over 50% of the liquid product. It may by used for fuel production or electricity generation.