Waste Polypropylene Plastic Recycling toward Climate Change Mitigation and Circular Economy: Energy, Environmental, and Technoeconomic Perspectives
Raaj R. Bora, Ralph C. Wang, Fengqi You
Abstract
Chemical recycling has the potential to reduce the environmental impacts from waste plastics, mitigate climate change, and contribute to circular economy. This study compares the environmental and economic performance of two such technologies, fast pyrolysis and gasification, with conventional disposal methods for treating polypropylene (PP) waste. High-fidelity process simulations for each technology are conducted to obtain the necessary mass, energy, and economic data for subsequent analyses. Through an extensive life cycle assessment utilizing the IPCC 2013, ReCiPe, and ILCD 2.0 methods, fast pyrolysis and gasification are determined to have lower overall greenhouse gas emissions and better overall environmental performance than the conventional methods of incineration and landfilling. The chemical recycling systems are also found to be considerably profitable with fast pyrolysis and gasification having total NPVs of $149MM and $96MM, respectively. The discount rate, waste PP price, and plant life are the most influential factors for the economic performance of both systems.