Clyvia Technology GmbH has successfully converted 3 tonnes (approximately 3.3 US tons) of waste oil into 2,000 liters (1.7 tonnes or approximately 528 US gal.) of diesel-like light oil in a large scale trial run of its pilot fractional deploymerization plant.
In the process, waste oil is pre-heated to 170° C prior to being fed into the plant reactor containing a catalyst compound. In the reactor, the waste oil is brought to a temperature of 400° C. The light oil then produced by the reactor process is extracted into a distillation tower.
The catalytic depolymerization process used in Clyvia Technology’s pilot plant is similar to the cracking of crude oil. The thermal treatment process shortens the long hydrocarbons in the waste to the length of diesel or heating oil.
The Clyvia process splits the longer molecules without forming methane, meaning that the Clyvia system does not produce major quantities of coke. The system is different from pyrolytic processes used to split hydrocarbon molecules, which require extremely high reactive temperatures, significantly increasing the cost of the process, and producing high amounts of waste carbon byproduct.
Initial gas-chromatographic tests conducted by Clyvia Technology have shown that the oil produced by the trial contain the expected distribution of diesel hydrocarbon chains. Density measurements conducted by Clyvia Technology have also been positive, according to the company.
Clyvia Technology has submitted the diesel output produced during the trial run to an external independent laboratory where it will be tested to check if it complies with diesel norm DIN EN 590 (the European standard for diesel fuel).
Tests of earlier output did not produce diesel fuel meeting low-sulfur requirements, although it did meet “most” of the fuel parameters required under international fuel standard DIN 51603-1, according to Clyvia’s most recent annual report. (Earlier post.)
The current round of development and testing in the new pilot plant are focused on producing diesel fuels that meet necessary sulfur content requirements.