| dc.description.abstract | The amount of plastic waste that needs to be taken care of increases every year. While much of it is recycled, a substantial amount cannot be recycled and is landfilled. This master thesis has been focused on an alternative recycling method for plastics, pyrolysis. The main objectives have been to do a broad literature review covering today’s technology and to source models which can be used to simulate such a process. One thermal single particle model and two pure kinetic models have been sourced and solved in Python. One of these models were also implemented in Aspen HYSYS, and a rough cost-estimate for a pyrolysis plant has been done.
The literature review has shown that pyrolysis is a promising method with examples of operational commercial plants, but that the economics of pyrolysis plants at best are marginal. The report has also shown that temperature, residence time and feed quality are key parameters for designing and optimizing a pyrolysis process as the products depend heavily upon them. The models sourced from literature was partly validated against laboratory experiments and was found to conform with them within reasonable margins. If more accurate models are needed, it is advised to consider a rigorous model which can be developed based on laboratory experiments | nb_NO |
