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Advanced Recycling for Plastics
Nalco Water delivers industry-leading chemical and process treatment of pyrolysis oil to help enhance product stability, improve cold flow properties, remove contaminants, and control acidic corrosion. The Advanced Recycling for Plastics program takes a full-cycle approach, working with chemical recyclers, storage and shipping companies, and ethylene producers, so companies can use existing infrastructure and equipment to integrate recycled plastic feedstocks into their operations while achieving Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals centered on sustainability, decarbonization and reducing plastic waste.
Full-Cycle Expertise
Ethylene Plants
Manage process and storage concerns.
Nalco Water is solving problems in over 80% of ethylene plants worldwide. Apply our unparalleled expertise in treating challenges in the ethylene unit of fouling, corrosion, and emulsions, while adding new solutions to deal with the unique properties of recycled feedstock.
Transport & Storage
Improve flow in all weather conditions.
Solve challenges of cold flow, filterability, and product stability presented by storing and transporting recycled plastic feedstock.
Advanced Recycling Plants
Identify, diagnose, and treat process and utility problems.
Address issues such as fouling, tar removal, product stability, contaminant removal, and corrosion.
Learn about our Advanced Recycling for Plastics program
Nalco Water is advancing the circular economy by helping companies achieve their decarbonization and sustainability goals through chemical recycling methods for plastic waste.
Advanced Recycling Solutions
Production, storage, handling, and processing of feedstocks from recycled plastics can provide a variety of challenges throughout the Advanced Recycling circle in terms of product stability, storage and flow properties, corrosion, fouling, and other issues.
Nalco Water has conducted extensive testing on a broad range of pyrolysis oils, leading to full cycle expertise and development of innovative solutions that address issues at each step of the Advanced Recycling process. To learn more, review our technical paper that was published in Hydrocarbon Engineering.
Enhance Product Stability
Pyrolysis oil (“pyoils”) produced from Advanced Recycling processes can have a wide range of properties that make them prone to tar, film, gums, and sediment formation. This can lead to solids buildup in equipment, piping, and storage tanks.
Nalco Water has developed innovative, patent-pending extraction, product stabilizer, and dispersant solutions that help:
- Remove or inhibit mechanisms to enhance short- and long-term stability of pyoils
- Reduce process fouling to improve reliability
- Improve compatibility with use as feedstocks in ethylene furnaces and refineries
Improve Cold Flow Properties
Continuous and reliable operations during winter weather is critical for any process plant. Many pyoils demonstrate poor and variable cold-flow properties depending on the plastic waste stream components and different advanced recycling technologies.
Nalco Water has patented EVA-copolymer-based flow improvers to help ensure optimized flow behaviors in all seasons, avoiding the costly alternative of heat-tracing process equipment and transfer pipelines. Our products are also certified safe for ethylene furnaces.
Control Acidic Corrosion
The pyoils manufactured by Advanced Recycling methods contain high acidic components, generally coming in through PVC waste and other metallic impurities, and demonstrate high TAN figures. The acidic nature of these streams poses significant corrosion threat to chemical recycling plants and to ethylene plants that would eventually process pyoils in their furnaces.
Nalco Water has optimized neutralizer programs and online chloride monitoring capabilities to give valuable insights and control over potential acidic corrosion.
Ethylene Plant Solutions
The challenges for ethylene producers do not end when recycled plastic feedstock arrives at the ethylene plant. In addition to stability, storage, and flow issues, pyrolysis oils can contain a wide range of feedstock contaminants that can potentially impact plant operations.
Nalco Water has market-leading expertise throughout an ethylene plant for feedstocks comprised of traditional gas and liquid feeds or pyrolysis oils derived from Advanced Recycling. Our programs address issues in the Primary Fractionator, Quench and Dilution Steam System, Process Gas Compressor, Acid Gas Removal, Light Ends Distillation, and Crude C4s quality and stability to help ethylene producers improve reliability, increase production, and achieve safety and sustainability goals.
Water Treatment Solutions
Nalco Water is Advancing the Circular Economy
Ethylene producers and downstream industries are increasing their use of recycled plastic feedstock, such as pyrolysis oil, to meet aggressive circularity and sustainability goals, and to reduce plastic waste. These feedstocks present unique challenges in terms of storage and transport stability, flow properties, fouling, and contaminants. Recycled feedstock can exacerbate issues in ethylene production such as fouling, corrosion, and emulsions.
Nalco Water takes a full-cycle approach with the Advanced Recycling for Plastics program to help with storage, transport, and processing of alternative feedstocks throughout the entire cycle of manufacturing and recycling plastics. From plastics-to-feedstocks recyclers to ethylene producers, the Advanced Recycling for Plastics program truly offers a circular suite of solutions.
Complete the form to download a technical paper that summarizes the research and development that Nalco Water has completed in advanced recycling solutions.