NUKLEONIKA 2006, 51(Suppl. 1):s89-s94
Bogdan Tymiński, Krzysztof Zwoliński, Renata Jurczyk
Department of Nuclear Methods in Process Engineering,
Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology,
16 Dorodna Str., 03-195 Warsaw, Poland
In Poland, the consumption of polymers like polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene amounts is
nearly one million tons per year. Most of the products made of these polymers becomes wastes in short
time. Polymers are very resistant to biodegradation, therefore technologies of their transformation
into useful materials should be developed. In our Institute, the technology of catalytic cracking of
polyolefines into liquid fuels is studied. Experiments are concentrated on the selection of proper
catalyst and on the construction of continuously operated installation for cracking of polyolefine
wastes. Experiments on the selection of catalyst were performed in a laboratory scale batch reactor.
A big laboratory installation with a yield of ca. 1 kg/h of liquid products was tested with positive
results and plans are to construct a pilot plant installation with a yield of 30 kg/h of liquid products.
The products of catalytic cracking are separated in a distillation column into gas, gasoline,
light oil and heavy oil fractions. The gas is used for heating the reactor. The heavy oil fraction
is recycled to the reactor and the gasoline and light oil fractions are the final products. The
gasoline fraction can be used as a component of motor gasoline and the light oil fraction can be used
as a component of diesel fuel or as a heating oil.