A pyrolysis reactor system includes a reactor and a contactor mounted above the reactor. The reactor has a shell, an inlet and an outlet. A central shaft runs along its axis and supports agitation blades in a counter-helical arrangement, and an auger. Rotation of the auger in one direction feeds feedstock into the vessel, and in the opposite direction removes char at the end of a batch. The contactor includes four elements with a frusto-conical part supported on vertical support arms, and being connected to a disc by legs. The contactor elements allow short chains to pass through apertures while long chains condense on their surfaces or on the vessel wall surface. There is dynamic tuning of carbon number of gases flowing downstream by active temperature and pressure control at the contactor.

A process for upgrading a pyrolysis oil comprising treating the pyrolysis oil with an upgrading solution to provide a mixture comprising an extract phase and a raffinate phase, wherein the upgrading solution comprises a polar organic solvent, and wherein the pyrolysis oil is a derived from the pyrolysis of plastic or rubber, or a combination thereof, and an upgraded pyrolysis oil prepared by said process.

Cogeneration plant for the continuous production of electrical and thermal energy from solid woody biomass, the latter being selected from among wood in the form of woodchips, vine branches, shrubs and underbrush, grain, hay, animal litter, suitably-treated muds, shells and kernels, suitably-treated husks, fibrous cultures and compositions thereof, the plant including at least one first container and at least one second container connected by at least one interconnection duct, the first container including the components suitable for inducing the transformation of the biomass into syngas including H.sub.2 and CO; the plant providing for a particular step of screening, drying and briquette-making on board the machine of the solid woody starting biomass.

A process for upgrading a pyrolysis oil comprising treating the pyrolysis oil with an upgrading solution to provide a mixture comprising an extract phase and a raffinate phase, wherein the upgrading solution comprises a polar organic solvent, and wherein the pyrolysis oil is a derived from the pyrolysis of plastic or rubber, or a combination thereof, and an upgraded pyrolysis oil prepared by said process.

A process for upgrading a pyrolysis oil comprising treating the pyrolysis oil with an upgrading solution to provide a mixture comprising an extract phase and a raffinate phase, wherein the upgrading solution comprises a polar organic solvent, and wherein the pyrolysis oil is a derived from the pyrolysis of plastic or rubber, or a combination thereof, and an upgraded pyrolysis oil prepared by said process.

Cogeneration plant for the continuous production of electrical and thermal energy from solid woody biomass, the latter being selected from among wood in the form of woodchips, vine branches, shrubs and underbrush, grain, hay, animal litter, suitably-treated muds, shells and kernels, suitably-treated husks, fibrous cultures and compositions thereof, the plant including at least one first container and at least one second container connected by at least one interconnection duct, the first container including the components suitable for inducing the transformation of the biomass into syngas including H.sub.2 and CO; the plant providing for a particular step of screening, drying and briquette-making on board the machine of the solid woody starting biomass.

A pyrolysis reactor system includes a reactor and a contactor mounted above the reactor. The reactor has a shell, an inlet and an outlet. A central shaft runs along its axis and supports agitation blades in a counter-helical arrangement, and an auger. Rotation of the auger in one direction feeds feedstock into the vessel, and in the opposite direction removes char at the end of a batch. The contactor includes four elements with a frusto-conical part supported on vertical support arms, and being connected to a disc by legs. The contactor elements allow short chains to pass through apertures while long chains condense on their surfaces or on the vessel wall surface. There is dynamic tuning of carbon number of gases flowing downstream by active temperature and pressure control at the contactor.

A process is described for treating waste plastics material to provide at least one on-specification fuel product. Plastics material is melted and then pyrolyzed in an oxygen-free atmosphere to provide pyrolysis gases. The pyrolysis gases are brought into contact with plates in a contactor vessel so that some long chain gas components condense and return to be further pyrolyzed to achieve thermal degradation. Short chain gas components exit the contactor in gaseous form and proceed to distillation to provide one or more on-specification fuel products. A pipe directly links the pyrolysis chamber to the contactor, suitable for conveying upwardly-moving pyrolysis gases and downwardly-flowing long-chain liquid for thermal degradation.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for the conversion of solid organic waste material, such as waste plastics, into fuel for the generation of heat and power. In addition, embodiments of the systems and methods disclosed herein relate to converting solid organic waste material into a gasified material for mixing with an oxidizing gas to allow for clean combustion of the fuel, thereby minimizing emissions of pollutants.

A pyrolysis process is incorporated with a pyrolysis furnace in the process. The pyrolysis furnace comprises an upper screw and a lower screw juxtaposed to the upper screw to smoothen the thermal cracking process, with each blade helically formed on the screw shaft being notched in the periphery of the screw blade to form a plurality of bifurcated fins on the blade, such that besides the conveying of feedstock in the screw as driven by the blade, the bifurcated fins may serve as agitating elements, thereby simultaneously conveying the feedstock and agitating the feedstock for increasing the production efficiency of the pyrolysis.