Resources,Conservation Recycling:X 4(2019)100017 Resource Contents lists available at ScienceDirect tion Resources,Conservation Recycling:X ELSEVIER journal homepage:www.journals.elsevier.com/resources-conservation-and-recycling-x A feasibility assessment of an integrated plastic waste system adopting mechanical and thermochemical conversion processes Maria Laura Mastellone.b.* Department of Environmental,Biological,Pharmaceutical Science and Technology,University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli",Via Vivaldi 43,81100 Caserta,Italy Pruvia Fuels GmbH,Rheingoldstr.10a,D-90513 Zirndorf,Germany ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: The large variety and amounts of plastic waste produced worldwide requires to better organize the industrial Plastic waste network devoted to the exploitation of this material by including different processes that allow to recover the Sorting "material"as main target.This paper presents the results of the feasibility study developed for an integrated Pyrolysis system for plastic waste management designed in such a way to deal with the real market and provide for Gasification reliable targets in term of material recovery yields,energy efficiency and waste minimization.The system under Syngas Syncrude study is a combination of mechanical sorting,thermochemical processes and conversion into materials and energy.The quantified block diagrams are used to represent the mass and feedstock energy balances by allowing the calculation of yields of given products.The equipment list for each sub-system is provided together with the installed power for the main component and/or auxiliary;these data allowed to perform the energy balance and to obtain the net energy production by the integrated system.The energy balance demonstrated that the in tegrated system is feasible while,on the contrary,the single processes are not energetic self-sustainable. 1.Introduction and scope economic factors affecting the decision of which route is the most sui- table for a certain waste are the composition in term of polymer type 1.1.Plastic waste management background (HDPE,LDPE,PP,PS,EPS,PET,PVC,...)and the fraction of non- polymeric materials (including multi-layered plastics and composites). The amount of plastic materials produced worldwide reached 348 These characteristics affect the design of the overall system,starting million of tonnes in 2017;about 18%of this amount was produced in with the sorting facility where the commingled plastic waste coming Europe and more than 50%in Asia.A fraction larger than 50%of from the separate collection of municipal and commercial waste is plastic converter demand is constituted by polypropylene (PP),low- realised,until the recycling or recovery process,chosen as suitable tool density polyethylene (LDPE)and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to convert the waste into valuable materials (Zaccariello et al.,2015). (Plastics Europe Annual Review,2018).The extensive production of The most applied combination of processes in Europe consists of the plastics and the indiscriminate disposal in the environment created also centralised sorting at material recovery facility (MRF)followed by the a question related to plastic waste disposal (Eriksen et al.,2014;Lopez- mechanical recycling for given streams of PET and polyolefins(mainly Lopez et al.,2018;Ritchie and Roser,2019)and several alternatives for HDPE)and by energy recovery for the remaining plastics mixed with recovery and recycling have been proposed and assessed.The large the foreign matters.This latter fraction is not a small amount:the re- variety of plastics and their various utilisation involves the necessity to sidual waste from MRF amounts to 40-60%of the input since it con- find different processes able to obtain an environmental correct dis- tains the foreign matter present in the collected waste and the plastics posal and an optimised material and energy recovery.Depending on not sorted by the sorting line itself. their physical and chemical characteristics,the collected plastic waste This residual waste is preferably sent to energy recovery or to can be sent to mechanical reprocessing,to feedstock/chemical re- production of secondary fuels for cement kilns and steel production cycling process or to energy recovery and landfill (Al-Salem et al., industries as substitute of coals;unfortunately,despite of"landfill ban" 2009).A unique preferred process cannot be chosen for all the com- existing in such Countries (Germany),a large of amount of this waste is mercial plastics introduced in the market nowadays.The main non- sent to landfills.The cost for this final recovery/disposal in Italy,is,by .Corresponding author at:Department of Environmental,Biological,Pharmaceutical Science and Technology,University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli",Via Vivaldi 43,81100 Caserta,Italy. E-mail addresses:marialaura.mastellone@unicampania.it,mlm@pruvia.de. https:/doi.org/10.1016/j.rcrx2019.100017 Received 6 June 2019;Received in revised form 16 August 2019;Accepted 23 August 2019 Available online 10 September 2019 2590-289X/2019 The Author(s).Published by Elsevier B.V.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Resources, Conservation & Recycling: X journal homepage: www.journals.elsevier.com/resources-conservation-and-recycling-x A feasibility assessment of an integrated plastic waste system adopting mechanical and thermochemical conversion processes Maria Laura Mastellonea,b,⁎ a Department of Environmental, Biological, Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy b Pruvia Fuels GmbH, Rheingoldstr. 10a, D-90513 Zirndorf, Germany ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Plastic waste Sorting Pyrolysis Gasification Syngas Syncrude ABSTRACT The large variety and amounts of plastic waste produced worldwide requires to better organize the industrial network devoted to the exploitation of this material by including different processes that allow to recover the “material” as main target. This paper presents the results of the feasibility study developed for an integrated system for plastic waste management designed in such a way to deal with the real market and provide for reliable targets in term of material recovery yields, energy efficiency and waste minimization. The system under study is a combination of mechanical sorting, thermochemical processes and conversion into materials and energy. The quantified block diagrams are used to represent the mass and feedstock energy balances by allowing the calculation of yields of given products. The equipment list for each sub-system is provided together with the installed power for the main component and/or auxiliary; these data allowed to perform the energy balance and to obtain the net energy production by the integrated system. The energy balance demonstrated that the in￾tegrated system is feasible while, on the contrary, the single processes are not energetic self-sustainable. 1. Introduction and scope 1.1. Plastic waste management background The amount of plastic materials produced worldwide reached 348 million of tonnes in 2017; about 18% of this amount was produced in Europe and more than 50% in Asia. A fraction larger than 50% of plastic converter demand is constituted by polypropylene (PP), low￾density polyethylene (LDPE) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) (Plastics Europe Annual Review, 2018). The extensive production of plastics and the indiscriminate disposal in the environment created also a question related to plastic waste disposal (Eriksen et al., 2014; López￾López et al., 2018; Ritchie and Roser, 2019) and several alternatives for recovery and recycling have been proposed and assessed. The large variety of plastics and their various utilisation involves the necessity to find different processes able to obtain an environmental correct dis￾posal and an optimised material and energy recovery. Depending on their physical and chemical characteristics, the collected plastic waste can be sent to mechanical reprocessing, to feedstock / chemical re￾cycling process or to energy recovery and landfill (Al-Salem et al., 2009). A unique preferred process cannot be chosen for all the com￾mercial plastics introduced in the market nowadays. The main non￾economic factors affecting the decision of which route is the most sui￾table for a certain waste are the composition in term of polymer type (HDPE, LDPE, PP, PS, EPS, PET, PVC, …) and the fraction of non￾polymeric materials (including multi-layered plastics and composites). These characteristics affect the design of the overall system, starting with the sorting facility where the commingled plastic waste coming from the separate collection of municipal and commercial waste is realised, until the recycling or recovery process, chosen as suitable tool to convert the waste into valuable materials (Zaccariello et al., 2015). The most applied combination of processes in Europe consists of the centralised sorting at material recovery facility (MRF) followed by the mechanical recycling for given streams of PET and polyolefins (mainly HDPE) and by energy recovery for the remaining plastics mixed with the foreign matters. This latter fraction is not a small amount: the re￾sidual waste from MRF amounts to 40–60% of the input since it con￾tains the foreign matter present in the collected waste and the plastics not sorted by the sorting line itself. This residual waste is preferably sent to energy recovery or to production of secondary fuels for cement kilns and steel production industries as substitute of coals; unfortunately, despite of “landfill ban” existing in such Countries (Germany), a large of amount of this waste is sent to landfills. The cost for this final recovery/disposal in Italy, is, by https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcrx.2019.100017 Received 6 June 2019; Received in revised form 16 August 2019; Accepted 23 August 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Environmental, Biological, Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy. E-mail addresses: marialaura.mastellone@unicampania.it, mlm@pruvia.de. Resources, Conservation & Recycling: X 4 (2019) 100017 Available online 10 September 2019 2590-289X/ © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/). T