Plastics waste management: A review of pyrolysis technology

The world is today faced with the problem of plastic waste pollution more than ever before. Global plastic production continues to accelerate, despite the fact that recycling rates are comparatively low, with only about 15% of the 400 million tonnes of plastic currently produced annually being recycled. Although recycling rates have been steadily growing over the last 30 years, the rate of global plastic production far outweighs this, meaning that more and more plastic is ending up in dump sites, landfills and finally into the environment, where it damages the ecosystem. Better end-of-life options for plastic waste are needed to help support current recycling efforts and turn the tide on plastic waste. A promising emerging technology is plastic pyrolysis; a chemical process that breaks plastics down into their raw materials. Key products are liquid resembling crude oil, which can be burned as fuel and other feedstock which can be used for so many new chemical processes, enabling a closed-loop process. The experimental results on the pyrolysis of thermoplastic polymers are discussed in this review with emphasis on single and mixed waste plastics pyrolysis liquid fuel.