Conceptual design of a distillation process for the separation of styrene monomer from polystyrene pyrolysis oil: experiment and simulation

Roshi Dahal* (Corresponding Author), Petri Uusi-Kyyny, Juha Pekka Pokki, Taina Ohra-aho, Ville Alopaeus

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study presents experiments and modeling of batch distillation for the separation of styrene monomer from polystyrene pyrolysis oil. The bottoms obtained from the batch distillation was further fractionated applying a short-path distillation unit to study the separation efficiency of styrene from the polystyrene pyrolysis oil. GC-FID and GCMS were applied for the composition analysis of the polystyrene pyrolysis oil, distillate, and bottom fractions. Styrene monomer was obtained with a purity of 99.9 wt% from the batch distillation. The batch distillation was modeled employing the NRTL–RK thermodynamic model. A good agreement was achieved for the purity of styrene between the experimental analysis and model prediction. Additionally, a continuous distillation column was modeled for the scale-up of the process. Furthermore, viscosities and densities of the bottoms fraction were measured at the temperature range of 298–348 K.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)65-75
Number of pages11
JournalChemical Engineering Research and Design
Volume195
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2023
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Batch distillation
  • Plastic waste
  • Pyrolysis
  • Short-path distillation
  • Styrene monomer

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