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Industrial recycling of plastic
The cycle of plastic waste recycling
The circulation of plastic starts from the initial production of plastic, where petroleum is the raw material. By processing petroleum, monomers are first produced, then polymers, until these are used for making various plastic products which are sold and used in everyday life.
When plastic products reach the end of their useful life, they turn into waste. Used plastic products are collected and sorted according to the type of plastic. Sorted waste is processed and prepared for recycling.
Plastic waste can be recycled in several ways. Mechanical recycling processes plastic waste and produces plastic pellets that can be used to make similar products (except for the food industry and medicine). The advantage of chemical recycling is that it can produce raw materials for the production of all plastic products (including the food industry and medicine).
A technology is also being developed which would allow decomposing the plastic into monomers which could then be used for producing new polymers. The third option is gasification, or pyrolysis, in the course of which plastic is turned into pyrolysis oil or gas which can be used as raw material for producing new plastic.
Mechanical versus chemical recycling of plastic
Very clean plastic waste of the same type and of a specific colour can be mechanically recycled. To do this, the waste needs to be cleaned and plastic of different types (more than 7 in total) and colours must be separated.
The separated types of plastic are used for producing granules which can be used for producing plastic again. Today, Estonia is able to recycle only about 25% of plastic waste this way. Our aim is to increase the recycling of plastic to 40 percent with the new plant.
For this purpose, we shall use chemical recycling in addition to mechanical recycling. As plastic ages due to the effects of light, temperature and moisture, it cannot be endlessly mechanically recycled. At some point, chemical recycling is the only solution to making new plastic from plastic waste.
The chemical recycling of plastic waste (pyrolysis or other thermochemical technologies) means the thermal processing of plastic waste which produces source chemicals for plastic production or raw materials for producing other products. Among other things, the advantages of chemical recycling include the possibility of also processing dirty plastic waste that may contain additives.
The production process – preprocessing of plastic waste (mechanical recycling)
Plastic waste we receive from waste treatment facilities will be the raw material for the production unit that is being developed. Plastic waste sorted from mixed everyday waste and construction waste will be used. We are also planning to use collected packaging waste by waste types, from which waste treatment facilities have by way of mechanical processing removed material to be recycled.
In the waste handling process, we shall use classical equipment used in modern waste sorting plants as well as innovative technologies such as dry cleaning and drying which have to our knowledge not been applied in Estonia before.
Our aim is to produce mixed plastic granules of appropriate quality from the waste flows available in Estonia.
The nominal capacity of the plant will be about 25,000 tonnes of unsorted plastic waste a year. The production capacity of sorted and granulated plastic waste will be 17,000 tonnes a year.
The production process – chemical recycling, or pyrolysis
In the second stage, plastic waste is heated in a reactor at a high temperature without air intake. As a result of pyrolysis, pyrolysis oil is obtained from plastic waste. The yield of the pyrolysis process is about 76% and the estimated average annual production volume will be 13,000 tonnes.
The process generates byproducts: pyrolysis gas, which will be used mainly to cover the heating needs of the plant, and coke, which can be deposited, reused as waste fuel, or valorised in another manner.
In total, we shall be able to recycle 70 to 80% of plastic waste which is not suitable for mechanical recycling and would otherwise be burnt as waste fuel.
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Viru Keemia Grupp
