DEPOLYMERIZATION OF ORGANIC AND NON-ORGANIC WASTE MATERIALS INTO USEFUL PRODUCTS

Abstract - 596875 Disclosed is a process for producing a fuel from a carbon containing feedstock comprising at least one of plastics, rubber, foams and elastomers, said process comprising: preparing a slurry from the feedstock; depolymerising the slurry by heating sufficiently (typically in the range of about 135°C to about 420°C) to reduce organic solids to liquids to form a composition comprising at least one solid material in a liquid mixture; separating said at least one solid material including inorganics from the liquid mixture; mixing water with the liquid mixture; hydrolysing the liquid mixture by heating at a pressure above the saturation pressure of water in the liquid mixture (typically at a temperature in a range of about 150°C to about 400°C) to produce a reacted feed; and deriving a hydrocarbon fuel from reacted feed. Also disclosed is a process for producing fuel from a feed stock containing at least one of shredder residue, tires, plastics or rubber, comprising: preparing a slurry including a liquid to form a process stream from the feedstock; depolymerizing the process stream at a temperature in the range of about 135°C to 420°C; separating at least one undissolved solid material from the process stream after depolymerising; adding water to the process stream; hydrolyzing the depolymerized and separated process stream at a temperature in the range of about 150°C to about 400°C and a pressure above the saturation pressure of water in the process stream at said hydrolysis temperature; flash reducing the pressure of the process stream after hydrolysing to recover vapours and heat, including steam; separating and removing solids from the process stream after reducing the pressure; separating water from the process stream after reducing the pressure; and diverting the process stream for use as a fuel. Further disclosed is a process for converting animal processing waste (such as animal offal) into at least one useful material, comprising: preparing a slurry from the animal processing waste; depolymerizing the slurry at a first temperature sufficient to breakdown proteinaceous materials in the slurry and drive off ammonia at a pressure above the saturation pressure of water in the slurry; separating at least one solid material including inorganics from the slurry to produce a liquid mixture; hydrolyzing the liquid mixture at a second, higher temperature ranging from about 150°C to about 330°C at a pressure of at least at the saturation pressure