PRODUCTION OF FUEL PRODUCTS FROM WASTE RUBBER MATERIAL

Abstract

A process for extracting fuel products from waste rubber, comprising the steps of subjecting the waste rubber to pyrolysis to produce a pyrolysis vapour, subjecting the pyrolysis vapour to a condensation step to produce a pyrolytic oil having a boiling point range of 45-400° C. and a flash point below 25° C., and then subjecting the pyrolytic oil to a vacuum steam stripping step so as to recover a fraction having a flash point of at least 40° C. but no higher than 55° C., a boiling point range starting at 100° C. or higher, a density at 15° C. of less than 990 kg/m.sup.3, a total acid number TAN of up to 12, a styrene content of less than 7000 ppm, and an organic halogen (as Cl) content of less than 50 ppm.

Claims

1. Composition obtained from the pyrolysis of waste rubber including natural rubber and subsequent separation of the resulting oil, which has: a flash point of at least 40° C. but no higher than 55° C. determined according to ASTM D93 procedure B, a boiling point range starting at 100° C. or higher under atmospheric pressure determined according to ASTM D86, a density at 15° C. of less than 990 kg/m.sup.3 determined according to ASTM D4052, a total acid number (TAN) of up to 12 determined according to ASTM D664, a styrene content of less than 7000 ppm determined according to gas chromatography, and an organic halogen (as CI) content of less than 50 mg/kg determined according to IP510.

2. Composition according to claim 1, which has a flash point of at least 40° C. but less than 55° C.

3. Composition according to claim 1 which contains biogenic carbon, and having a biogenic carbon content of at least 15%, as determined according to ASTM D6866 Method B (AMS).

4. Composition according to claim 1 which contains aromatic hydrocarbons, preferably and having a total aromatic hydrocarbon content of at least 20% m/m, as measured according to IP3 91.

5. Composition according to claim 1, having a boiling point range starting at 110° C. or higher.

6. Composition according to claim 1, having a boiling point range starting no higher than 220° C.

7. Composition according to claim 1, having a flash point ranging from 40° C. to less than 55° C.

8. Composition according to claim 1, wherein the waste rubber from which the composition is derived comprises waste tires.

9. Marine fuel comprising from 0.01 to 10% of the composition as defined in claim 1.

10. Use of the composition as defined in claim 1 as a component in a fuel product.

11. Process for extracting fuel products from waste rubber, comprising the steps of: (a) subjecting waste rubber to pyrolysis to produce a pyrolysis vapour; (b) subjecting the pyrolysis vapour to a condensation step to produce a pyrolytic oil having a boiling point range of 45-400° C. and a flash point below 25° C.; (c) subjecting the pyrolytic oil to a vacuum steam stripping step at a pressure of less than 0.85 bar a and with a temperature of less than 120° C. at the top of the column, and recovering a first component having an initial boiling point not exceeding 75° C. under atmospheric pressure and a second component which has a boiling point range starting from 100° C. under atmospheric pressure or higher and which possesses the properties defined in claim 1.

12. Process according to claim 11, wherein said first and second components together comprise at least 98 vol % of the total product obtained from the vacuum steam stripping step (c).

13. Process according to claim 11, wherein prior to the vacuum steam stripping step (c) the condensed pyrolytic oil is passed through a solids removal stage in order to reduce its solids content.

14. Process according to claim 13, wherein prior to the vacuum steam stripping step (c) the condensed pyrolytic oil is passed through a solids removal stage in order to reduce the solids content to less than 0.5 wt %.

Description

EXAMPLE

[0048] A composition according to the invention was obtained by performing pyrolysis of a feedstock of chipped tyres followed by condensation, solids removal and vacuum steam stripping as described above. In this case the fluxant product had a boiling point range starting at 141° C.

[0049] The collected products were subjected to a distillation according to ASTM D86. The results are shown in the Table below.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Distillation test according to ASTM D86 Fluxant REC Initial boiling pt ° C. 141.0  5% ° C. 160.0 10% ° C. 199.5 30% ° C. 270.0 50% ° C. 319.0 70% ° C. — 90% ° C. — 95% ° C. — Final boiling pt ° C. 319.0 Recovery vol % 50.0 Residue vol % 49.0 Loss vol % 1.0 Density at 15° C. kg/m.sup.3 949.0 REC = recovered Density was determined according to ASTM D4052

[0050] It can be seen that the fluxant product had a percent recovery of just 50 vol % in this test. By contrast the standard automotive and marine diesel products, which are middle distillates, had a percent recovery exceeding 97 vol %.

[0051] The recovered fluxant product was found to have the following properties: [0052] Flash Point (ASTM D93B)—49° C. [0053] TAN (ASTM D664)—4.48 mg KOH/kg [0054] Styrene content (gas chromatography method)—1376 ppm [0055] Organic halogen as Cl (IP510)—14 mg/kg [0056] Density at 15° C. (ASTM D4052)—949.0 kg/m.sup.3 [0057] Biogenic carbon content (ASTM D6866B)—51% [0058] Total aromatic content (IP 391)—47.0 vol %

[0059] The above data shows that the fluxant product recovered has properties which permit its use as a component of marine fuels, as well as having a flash point high enough to permit its transportation without additional safety restrictions. Furthermore it makes use of high boiling point black components, which otherwise need to be further processed or disposed of separately, as they are regarded as being of little commercial value, since black colouration is incompatible with most transportation fuel products.