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Fractional distillation of waste plastic pyrolysis oil for isolating narrow hydrocarbons cuts

Waheed Zeb (UGent) , Tobias De Somer (UGent) , Martijn Roosen (UGent) , Pieter Knockaert (UGent) , Mehrdad Seifali Abbasabadi (UGent) , Uros Kresovic (UGent) , Joël Hogie (UGent) , Kevin Van Geem (UGent) and Steven De Meester (UGent)
(2025) FUEL. 379.
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Abstract
Pyrolysis of polyolefins generates a large amount of olefins, which can serve as a valuable feedstock for the synthesis of chemicals. Nevertheless, their effective utilization requires refining owing to their diverse carbon distribution. This study performed a comprehensive GCxGC analysis of pyrolysis oils derived from waste polypropylene (PP) and waste high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The chemical composition of PP pyrolysis oil exhibited a high content of iso-olefins, whereas HDPE pyrolysis oil contained mainly alpha-olefins. Experimental batch distillation of PP pyrolysis oil yielded narrow hydrocarbon cuts with iso-olefins content exceeding 70 wt%. In contrast, distillation of HDPE resulted in cuts with more than 25 wt% alpha-olefins content. To perform ASPEN simulations, the physical properties (density, viscosity) of the oil were determined, two ways for obtaining boiling curves (ASTM D2887 and ASTM D86) were compared and two property methods (Peng-Robinson and Soave-Redlich-Kwong) were compared. It was concluded that the ASTM D2887 boiling curve and the Peng-Robinson property method present better experimental agreement for pyrolysis oils using the Theil's Inequality Coefficients test. Based on the validated batch simulation, continuous distillation process schemes for isolating narrow carbon cuts in the refinery atmospheric tower indicate that a side draw configuration provides a better yield of (19.1 wt%) compared to a dedicated separate distillation column of (11.9 wt%) for the same number of trays, while the dedicated column allows the possibility to achieve higher purity.
Keywords
Chemical plastic recycling, Distillation, Process design, Pyrolysis, Pyrolysis oil refining, COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS, OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES, DESIGN, FUELS

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MLA
Zeb, Waheed, et al. “Fractional Distillation of Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Oil for Isolating Narrow Hydrocarbons Cuts.” FUEL, vol. 379, 2025, doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2024.133055.
APA
Zeb, W., De Somer, T., Roosen, M., Knockaert, P., Seifali Abbasabadi, M., Kresovic, U., … De Meester, S. (2025). Fractional distillation of waste plastic pyrolysis oil for isolating narrow hydrocarbons cuts. FUEL, 379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2024.133055
Chicago author-date
Zeb, Waheed, Tobias De Somer, Martijn Roosen, Pieter Knockaert, Mehrdad Seifali Abbasabadi, Uros Kresovic, Joël Hogie, Kevin Van Geem, and Steven De Meester. 2025. “Fractional Distillation of Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Oil for Isolating Narrow Hydrocarbons Cuts.” FUEL 379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2024.133055.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Zeb, Waheed, Tobias De Somer, Martijn Roosen, Pieter Knockaert, Mehrdad Seifali Abbasabadi, Uros Kresovic, Joël Hogie, Kevin Van Geem, and Steven De Meester. 2025. “Fractional Distillation of Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Oil for Isolating Narrow Hydrocarbons Cuts.” FUEL 379. doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2024.133055.
Vancouver
1.
Zeb W, De Somer T, Roosen M, Knockaert P, Seifali Abbasabadi M, Kresovic U, et al. Fractional distillation of waste plastic pyrolysis oil for isolating narrow hydrocarbons cuts. FUEL. 2025;379.
IEEE
[1]
W. Zeb et al., “Fractional distillation of waste plastic pyrolysis oil for isolating narrow hydrocarbons cuts,” FUEL, vol. 379, 2025.
@article{01J79S1E3G0B3ZJ0SAWHNGQ36X,
  abstract     = {{Pyrolysis of polyolefins generates a large amount of olefins, which can serve as a valuable feedstock for the synthesis of chemicals. Nevertheless, their effective utilization requires refining owing to their diverse carbon distribution. This study performed a comprehensive GCxGC analysis of pyrolysis oils derived from waste polypropylene (PP) and waste high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The chemical composition of PP pyrolysis oil exhibited a high content of iso-olefins, whereas HDPE pyrolysis oil contained mainly alpha-olefins. Experimental batch distillation of PP pyrolysis oil yielded narrow hydrocarbon cuts with iso-olefins content exceeding 70 wt%. In contrast, distillation of HDPE resulted in cuts with more than 25 wt% alpha-olefins content. To perform ASPEN simulations, the physical properties (density, viscosity) of the oil were determined, two ways for obtaining boiling curves (ASTM D2887 and ASTM D86) were compared and two property methods (Peng-Robinson and Soave-Redlich-Kwong) were compared. It was concluded that the ASTM D2887 boiling curve and the Peng-Robinson property method present better experimental agreement for pyrolysis oils using the Theil's Inequality Coefficients test. Based on the validated batch simulation, continuous distillation process schemes for isolating narrow carbon cuts in the refinery atmospheric tower indicate that a side draw configuration provides a better yield of (19.1 wt%) compared to a dedicated separate distillation column of (11.9 wt%) for the same number of trays, while the dedicated column allows the possibility to achieve higher purity.}},
  articleno    = {{133055}},
  author       = {{Zeb, Waheed and De Somer, Tobias and Roosen, Martijn and Knockaert, Pieter and Seifali Abbasabadi, Mehrdad and Kresovic, Uros and Hogie, Joël and Van Geem, Kevin and De Meester, Steven}},
  issn         = {{0016-2361}},
  journal      = {{FUEL}},
  keywords     = {{Chemical plastic recycling,Distillation,Process design,Pyrolysis,Pyrolysis oil refining,COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS,OPPORTUNITIES,CHALLENGES,DESIGN,FUELS}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{15}},
  title        = {{Fractional distillation of waste plastic pyrolysis oil for isolating narrow hydrocarbons cuts}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2024.133055}},
  volume       = {{379}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}
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