Germany-based chemical giant Evonik has launched a new range of adsorbents and catalysts technologies to improve the quality of pyrolysis oil.
Called Purocel, the series includes adsorbents, hydrotreating catalysts and a modular polishing skid named Rocket. The products help reduce chlorides, silicon, TAN and other contaminants in pyrolysis oil.
Pyrolysis oil tends not to be able to be used as is, but requires three further processing steps - pretreatment, upgrading, and refining - to turn it into better quality and usable feedstock for new plastics.
“The removal of organic chlorides from plastic pyrolysis oil has historically presented a challenging problem for the circular plastic industry,” commented Nirav Shah, Evonik Catalysts Global Director. “We’re committed to constant innovation at Evonik, which we know is vital to bringing a shared solution closer.”
Evonik said its adsorbent Purocel 505 has demonstrated three times higher chloride removal than conventional organic chloride sorbents and can be used across a variety of pyrolysis oil fractions. Purocel 510 is regenerable, contributing to greater circularity; Purocel 515 assists with the polishing of pyrolysis oil and gas.
Evonik’s wider pyrolysis oil portfolio includes Purocel hydrotreating catalysts for the main catalytic bed: Purocel H100, H200, H300 and H400. These catalysts remove metals and organic chlorides and reduce olefins and aromatics, boasting comparable performance to fresh catalysts. They can be regenerated and reused to support sustainability efforts, while offering cost-saving benefits.
Polishing units for pretreating pyrolysis oil feedstock are also a part of the solution. Skid-mounted, the so-called Rocket technology combines a tailored adsorbent with optimised fluid dynamics to improve purification performance. Complete modular skids can be modified to suit customers’ requirements.
“We’re excited to bring this development to market, improving circularity for the plastics industry and offering greater sustainability benefits to refineries and petrochemical companies,” said Max Preisenberger, head of catalysts at Evonik. “Our latest generation of adsorbents and catalysts means that pyrolysis oil can meet purification specifications for even the most stringent of complexes – opening up new applications.”
This January, Evonik and Oerlikon Barmag joined forces to develop and commercialise a PET chemical recycling technology by the end of the decade.
Evonik has been developing a process to facilitate recycling of heavily contaminated PET waste since the beginning of the decade. Using a process called methanolysis, post-consumer PET plastic waste can be depolymerised into monomeric feedstock, which can be utilised as a building block to new produce polymers. The process is similar to hydrolysis, which Evonik uses to chemically recycle polyurethane.
The new partnership will build on Evonik’s new developments in catalyst technology to improve the efficiency of the depolymerisation process. Oerlikon Barmag will contribute its expertise in chemical fibres and packaging materials production.
Find Evonik at PRSE: stand L48