Characterization of the Thermal Pyrolysis Process of Waste Derived from Mechanical Recycling of Plastics

The various strategies for recycling and valorization of plastic waste are an alternative to reduce the large amounts of garbage available worldwide. Specifically, obtaining reusable plastics through mechanical recycling represents a viable and economically sustainable option. However, this process results in waste that is impossible to recycle by conventional methods. Therefore, an alternative is proposed for processing this waste from the mechanical recycling of plastics, obtaining value-added fuels that can complement conventional ones. In this work, the thermal pyrolysis of a random waste is presented, finding that it is possible to obtain 82.4% of the initial mass of the waste in crude pyrolytic oil at a temperature of 425 °C. This raw pyrolytic oil is fractionated and characterized, finding that at these temperature conditions, 27.49% is a light fuel like gasoline, 49.29% is a medium fuel like diesel, and 23.22% is a heavy fuel like heavy diesel.