Design, optimization and integration of the distillation process for
separating plastic pyrolysis oil
Abstract
Plastic waste and debris have caused substantial environmental pollution
globally. In this work, a new engineering concept of the mobile
recycling platform for plastic waste is proposed. And a four-column
distillation scheme for separating plastic pyrolysis oil was built for
the mobile recycling platform. Firstly, a VOF CFD simulation was
conducted to reveal the liquid flow characteristics along and inside the
θ-ring, and then based on the CFD data and theoretical analysis, an
optimization model for the packing ring was proposed to design the wavy
ring. Secondly, the novel wavy rings were applied in the four-column
distillation experiment, and acetophenone (99.68w%) and phenol
(98.94w%) were separated from the pyrolysis oil. Finally, the heat
integration of the four-column distillation scheme and the engineering
economic analysis of the mobile recycling platform were carried out. The
results indicate that the mobile recycling platform is feasible in terms
of theory, technology, and economics.