Circular chemicals or polymers from pyrolyzed plastic waste and the use of mass balance accounting to allow for crediting the resultant products as circular

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11518942-B2
Application number	US-202117487770-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2021
Priority date	Sep 28, 2020
Publication date	Dec 6, 2022
Grant date	Dec 6, 2022

Abstract

This disclosure relates to the production of chemicals and plastics using pyrolysis oil from the pyrolysis of plastic waste as a co-feedstock along with a petroleum-based or fossil fuel co-feed, or as a feedstock in the absence of a petroleum-based or fossil fuel co-feed. A mass balance accounting approach is employed to attribute the pounds of pyrolyzed plastic products derived from pyrolysis oil to any output stream of a given unit, which permits assigning circular product credit to product streams. In an aspect, the polymers and chemicals produced according to this disclosure can be certified under International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) provisions as circular polymers and chemicals at any point along complex chemical reaction pathways.

First claim

We claim:

1. A process for producing chemicals or polymers from plastic waste, the process comprising:
(a) providing a pyrolysis oil from plastic waste;
(b) introducing the pyrolysis oil at a known feed rate into one or more primary processing units thereby providing one or more primary processing unit feeds comprising the pyrolysis oil; and
(c) converting the one or more primary processing unit feeds into one or more primary processing unit output streams, each output stream comprising at least one circular product, wherein the weight or the fraction of each circular product attributable to the pyrolysis oil or plastic waste is determined by mass balance;
wherein the pyrolysis oil is present in the one or more primary processing unit feeds in a concentration of up to 100 wt %, and an optional co-feed for the one or more primary processing unit feeds, when present, comprises a petroleum-based co-feed, a fossil fuel-based co-feed, or a bio-based co-feed; and
wherein the pyrolysis oil properties is any of one, two, three or all four of the following:
(i) a Pour Point (ASTM D97 or ISO:3016) of less than or equal to about −40° C.;
a Kinematic viscosity (ASTM D445 or ISO:3104) of (a) about 3.0 mm 2 /s or from about 2cSt to about 20 cSt (100° C.), (b) 11.0 mm2/s (40° C.) or (c) about 76.0 mm 2 /s (0° C.)
(iii) a Flash point (ISO:2719) of greater than or equal to about 140° C.; or
(iv) a dielectric breakdown voltage (ASTM D1816) of from about 10 kV/mm to about 60 kV/mm, from about 15 kV/mm to about 40 kV/mm, or from about 20 kV/mm to about 30 kV/mm.

2. The process for producing chemicals or polymers from plastic waste according to claim 1 , wherein the pyrolysis oil is present in the one or more primary processing unit feeds in a concentration of 100 wt %.

3. The process for producing chemicals or polymers from plastic waste according to claim 1 , wherein the process further comprises:
(d) transferring at least a portion of the one or more primary processing unit output streams, each at a known feed rate, into one or more secondary or subsequent processing units, thereby providing one or more secondary or subsequent processing unit feeds, each comprising a circular product in a known concentration; and
(e) converting the one or more secondary or subsequent processing unit feeds into one or more secondary or subsequent processing unit output streams, a portion of each output stream comprising at least one circular product, wherein the weight or the fraction of each circular product attributable to the pyrolysis oil or plastic waste is determined by mass balance; and
(f) optionally, repeating steps (d) and (e) one or more times by:
[1] transferring at least a portion of the one or more secondary or subsequent processing unit output streams, each at a known feed rate, into one or more tertiary or subsequent processing units, thereby providing one or more tertiary or subsequent processing unit feeds, each comprising a circular product in a known concentration; and
[2] converting the one or more tertiary or subsequent processing unit feeds into one or more tertiary or subsequent processing unit output streams, a portion of each output stream comprising at least one circular product, wherein the weight or the fraction of each circular product attributable to the pyrolysis oil or plastic waste is determined by mass balance.

4. The process for producing chemicals or polymers from plastic waste according to claim 3 , wherein the primary processing unit, the secondary processing unit, the tertiary processing unit, or the subsequent processing unit is selected independently from a refinery crude unit, an atmospheric distillation unit, a vacuum distillation unit, a separation unit, a hydroprocessing unit, a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, an FCC pre-treating unit upstream of a fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit, a steam cracking unit (liquid or gas), a natural gas liquids (NGL) unit, a reforming (aromatics) unit, an alkylation reactor, an aromatics purification unit, a polymerization reactor, an olefin oligomerization unit, an isomerization reactor, a metathesis reactor, a hydroformylation unit, a dehydroformylation unit, an oxidation unit, a reduction unit, a nitration unit, an amination unit, a nitrile unit, an amidation unit, a hydrogenation unit, a Fischer-Tropsch reactor, a methanol-to-olefins reactor, an alkylation unit, a catalytic dehydrogenation unit, a polyester unit, a polyamide unit, or a combination thereof.

5. The process for producing chemicals or polymers from plastic waste according to claim 3 , wherein the secondary processing unit feed, the tertiary processing unit feed, or the subsequent processing unit feed is a circular feed selected independently from a heavy hydrocarbon fraction of petroleum, aromatic hydrocarbons, aliphatic hydrocarbons, hydrogen, naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), C 2 -C 5 hydrocarbons, a refinery-transfer stream, natural gas liquids, ethylene, propylene, ethane, propane, butane, hexane, octane, decane, dodecane, propylene-propane mix, ethylene-ethane mix, C 4 -C 30+ Normal Alpha Olefins, 1-butene, 1-pentene, 1-hexene, 1-heptene, 1-octene, 1-nonene, 1-decene, 1-dodecene, 1-tetradecene, 1-hexadecene, 1-octadecene, butadiene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, ethylbenzene, styrene, cyclohexane, methylcyclohexane, adipic acid, adiponitrile, hexamethylene diamine (HMDA), caprolactam, 1-dodecene, tetradecene, hexadecane, octadecene, a C 20 -C 24 normal alpha olefin or polyene, a C 24 -C 28 normal alpha olefin or polyene, or a C 30+ normal alpha olefin or polyene.

6. The process for producing chemicals or polymers from plastic waste according to claim 3 , wherein:
(a) the primary processing unit is a cracker; and
(b) the one or more primary processing unit output streams comprise circular ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, or xylenes.

7. A process for producing chemicals or polymers from plastic waste according to claim 6 , wherein:
(c) the one or more secondary processing unit output streams, the one or more tertiary processing unit output streams, or the one or more subsequent processing unit output streams is a circular product selected independently from circular xylenes, p-xylene, hydrogen, styrene, ethylbenzene, cyclohexane, nylon, butadiene, butadiene feedstock (BDFS), rubber, polybutadiene rubber (PBR), styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR), polychloroprene rubber (neoprene), C 4 -C 30+ Normal Alpha Olefins, 1-butene, 1-pentene, 1-hexene, 1-heptene, 1-octene, 1-nonene, 1-decene, 1-dodecene, 1-tetradecene, 1-hexadecene, 1-octadecene, polyethylene homopolymers and copolymers, polypropylene homopolymers and copolymers, a polyalphaolefin comprising a C 4 -C 30+ normal alpha olefin monomeric unit, a C 20 -C 24 normal alpha olefin or polyene, a C 24 -C 28 normal alpha olefin or polyene, a C 30+ normal alpha olefin or polyene, mixed decenes, mercaptans, organic sulfides, methyl ethyl sulfide (MES), methyl mercaptan (MeSH), dimethyl sulfide (DMS), dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), or betamercaptoethanol, the weight or fraction of which is attributable to the pyrolysis oil or plastic waste is determined by mass balance.

8. The process for producing chemicals or polymers from plastic waste according to claim 3 , wherein steps (d) and (e) are repeated 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 times.

9. The process for producing chemicals or polymers from plastic waste according to claim 7 , wherein:
the circular product is certified as Circular in accordance with International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) standards, based upon the weight or fraction of the circular product attributable to the pyrolysis oil or plastic waste determined by mass balance and the free attributi

Assignees

• Chevron Phillips Chemical Co Lp

Inventors

• Abbott Ronald G
• Morrison Scott G
• Horlacher Steven R
• Sutherland Jamie N
• Murray Bruce D
• Hilbrich Jacob M
• Polito Charles T

Classifications

• C10G45/50

  in combination with chromium, molybdenum or tungsten metal, or compounds thereof · CPC title

• C10G3/40

  Thermal non-catalytic treatment · CPC title

• C10G1/10

  from rubber or rubber waste · CPC title

• C10G2400/20

  C2-C4 olefins · CPC title

• C10G9/00

  Thermal non-catalytic cracking, in the absence of hydrogen, of hydrocarbon oils · CPC title