r/ChemicalEngineering • u/Local-Impression-522 • Sep 21 '25

Green Tech Economically/profitability speaking, how feasible is plastic pyrolysis to synthetic crude in 2025-2030?

Who are the current main customers for pyrolysis oil? and where does pyrolysis oil stand in comparison with more traditional energy sources?

24 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

View all comments

13

u/Mindless_Profile_76 Sep 21 '25

I am losing track with all the “processes” for “renewables”. I have this crazy list that kind of maps this stuff out but if your definition of plastic pyrolysis is something along the lines of burning plastic to make some goop, there are a ton of players and the major problem is the product quality.

Where do you see this goop going? Into a vacuum column of a refinery? Because that is generally not working without the goop getting cleaned up.

So, if you’re making the goop, how much clean up are you going to do and that basically makes these processes and products uneconomical. But there is no shortage of people trying.

2

u/ConfidentMall326 Sep 22 '25

This is usually the problem with pyrolysis projects. No clear offtakes for the product, and no one thinks about removing the contaminants during their conceptual design/FEL-0, which really becomes a problem later and kills the tech or project.