| Abstract: | The material recycling rate for post-consumer plastic in Austria currently ranges around 25?%, because only post-consumer plastic fractions which are disposed as clean mono-materials are available for material recycling. A significant enhancement of the material recycling rate can be achieved with a process chain consisting of wet mechanical processing and thermochemical conversion. The wet mechanical process step enriches polyolefin and polystyrene from different waste sources, which are used as feedstock for a solvent-based, thermal depolymerisation. Via thermal cracking petrochemical intermediates (i.e. short- and long-chained, aromatic and paraffinic hydrocarbons) are produced, which can be appropriately fed into a conventional crude oil refinery and processed to marketable products. In this way, the material cycle can be closed economically feasible. Both the wet mechanical processing and the thermochemical conversion have been proofed in laboratory scale and are currently transferred to pilot scale. |
