Chemical Plant Design for the Conversion of Plastic Waste to Liquid Fuel

Abstract

This paper presents the plant design for fuel production from plastic waste. The types of plastics to be used for the fuel production include polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene. All these materials are to be sourced from Kpone landfill site in Accra, Ghana, where the plant is to be situated. The major fuels produced are gasoline, diesel and kerosene with a plant capacity of approximately 1000 tons of plastic waste per day and its attainment is 95 % . The production process involves sorting the municipal solid waste to obtain suitable plastics. The plastics are extruded and cracked thermally in a Pyrolyzer and the gases from it are reformed over Zeolite-ZSM 5 as the catalyst in a reactor. Resulting vapours are fractionated in a column to obtain the various fuel components. The plant operates 24 hours/day and 347 days/year with 3 shifts per day of 8 hours per shift. Total capital required to build and start up the plant amounts to approximately 17 Million US Dollars. The plant life is 25 years with an annual rate of return of 34 % and a payback period of 2.9 years for this project, after setting up. Annually, the plant would generate gross and net profits of approximately 9 Million US Dollars and 6.7 Million US Dollars respectively.