Method for producing pyrolysis oil from waste plastics

The invention relates to a process for converting plastic waste into pyrolysis oil for feeding to a steam cracker, comprising the steps of: pre-cleaning a comminuted waste plastic stream in a cleaning solution comprising cleaning water and a caustic solution; separating the pre-washed comminuted waste plastic to provide a stream of washed comminuted plastic waste material rich in polyolefin; thermally cracking the polyolefin-rich rinsed comminuted plastic waste stream to produce a gasified hydrocarbon stream; condensing the vaporized hydrocarbon stream into a liquid hydrocarbon stream and a gaseous hydrocarbon stream; cleaning the liquid hydrocarbon stream with a caustic solution; separating the liquid hydrocarbon stream from the caustic solution to produce a caustic washed liquid hydrocarbon stream and a spent caustic solution stream; and rinsing the caustic cleaned liquid hydrocarbon stream with water; the rinsed liquid hydrocarbon stream is separated from the rinse water to produce a pyrolysis oil stream f