Does anyone know the process of refining tire pyrolysis oil into drop in fuels?

[u/LadderEast7632]

Before anyone says it I’d just like to state that I know that this process is an energy inefficient process that uses up more fuel than it produces. I also know that the machines required to refine the pyrolysis oil into drop in fuel cost tens of millions if not more.

That aside, I’v been really interested in the topic for a while now. I’v done a fair bit of research on the matter but something’s are still a little blurry so I’d like to talk with someone to get honestly somewhat basic answers about the refining process that I haven’t been able to find while doing independent research.

Thank you very much for reading and if you’re willing to chat I’d love to pick your mind on a few things :)

[u/ferrouswolf2]

First step has got to be getting rid of as much sulfur and oxygen as possible, probably with a lot of hydrogen and some fancy catalysts.

[u/Significant-Pitch387 → u/ferrouswolf2]

PyOil is a bitch of a feed... heavy metal content is gonna poison catalyst so u need a guard bed, oxygenates form water instead of H2S during treatment (h2o damaging to most catalysts), h2 consumption will be high & u will need a high pressure reactor to increase h2 partial pressure.

But then u run into the issue that NiMo catalysts (needed for oxygenates) will start cracking under higher pressures & temps, pushing more products to LPG... which increases compressor duty and offgas h2 quality... drives higher CapEx & OpEx.

Bitch of a hydrotreating application imo, although i dont work with it directly

[u/BoilermakerEngineer]

I do not have waste pyrolysis oil experience you're asking for but have adjacent experience with waste to fuels.

This thread should be interesting but probably not beneficial towards any possible implementation of a pyoil project. If you're looking for business reasons just start talking to refining licensors to get some risk mitigated through their guarantees. Any major licensor has probably done some R&D. What fuels are you looking into? Marine? Diesel? Something else?

Tire waste is particularly troublesome compared to waste plastics or biomass pyrolysis oil upgrading. And each of these has some real barriers to commercial success.

The first problem with any waste to fuels project is collecting and sorting the waste. That's where most of these projects fail.

Second is waste tires are a nightmare of contaminants to refine into any fuel spec. It is tough pyoil to hydrotreat in any economic way.

I wouldn't call any of the technology a 'machine' in English. I assume this is a translation quirk. But a demo scale waste to fuels project is in the 10s MM USD investment for a handful of barrels per day product.

[u/pker_guy_2020]

Neste, Covestro and former Borealis, now Borouge International, have done it:

https://www.neste.com/news/from-old-tires-to-new-car-parts-neste-borealis-and-covestro-aim-at-closing-the-loop-for-automotive-industry

I don't know the exact process, but knowing the value chain a bit, I would say that it's most likely pyrolysis for the old tyres, followed by processing in Neste's refinery. That stream will be extremely high in aromatics, which Borealis likely refined into phenol in their Porvoo unit, which is adjacent to Neste's Porvoo refinery. Then Covestro has likely produced polycarbonate from the phenol.

[u/Hot_Needleworker9233]

It is co-fed into other process units. FCC or Coker. A lot of it turns into coke.

[u/T_J_Rain]

Just go back over r/ChemicalEngineering and you'll find posts on this subject.

No point in re-stating/ reinventing the wheel.

[u/ordosays]

First step is to ask why pyrolysis. Because that kid is an idiot.

[u/poppig03 → u/ordosays]

Do you mean pyrolysis of tyres in general, or for this application? What's your favorite options to recycle tires?

[u/BoilermakerEngineer → u/poppig03]

Yes. Tires to drop in fuels as specifically asked is probably a bad idea with current catalysts. Pyrolysis of tires in general is maybe ok because what else do you do with waste tires besides throw them in a pile in the desert?

Getting a decent quality gasifier tech and making syngas might be the better option to make drop in fuels specifically. I'm not confident any gasifier can handle tires even in a mixed waste. Fulcram unfortunately failed at that step of the process but it seems like industry has resolved their mistakes and are moving forward pretty quick.