Author(s)

J. Procida & K. S. Bloch

Abstract

Recycling of PVC waste is a focus area in European environmental policy. PVC waste may hence be regarded as a potential resource instead of useless waste. Since 1998, the Danish company RGS 90 has made a great effort to develop a sustainable method for chemical recycling of PVC waste. RGS 90 has obtained financial support from the LIFE-programme under the European Union (EU) and from Vinyl 2010. The financial support has made it possible to carry out a full-scale industrial demonstration project for chemical recycling of PVC waste into oil, salt and minerals. The process has shown the ability to treat all types of PVC waste in full-scale tests. With a capacity of 50,000 t/y PVC waste, the plant is erected near the Danish city of Skælskør. RGS 90 has already other waste treatment facilities placed at this location, and the PVC plant is integrated with these facilities. With the industrial size pilot plant in operation, further tests will be performed to evaluate the PVC waste pre-treatment, reactor performance and product refining processes. The combination of dechlorination of PVC by hydrolysis and the successive pyrolysis of the dechlorinated solid fraction has already shown environmental improvements creating a liquid product with low chlorine content and 100% utilisation of the PVC waste. Keywords: PVC waste, pyrolysis, hydrolysis, recycling. 1 Introduction Two of the major challenges to waste management in industrialised countries are the handling of polluted sludge from wastewater treatment plants and the

Keywords

PVC waste, pyrolysis, hydrolysis, recycling.