Enhancement of liquid/gas production during co-pyrolysis of vacuum residue and plastics due to synergistic interactions.

Vacuum residue (VR) was copyrolysed with polyethylene (PE) or polystyrene (PS) in a batch reactor to investigate the corresponding synergistic pyrolytic interactions. The synergistic interactions between VR and plastic pyrolysates enhanced liquid and gas production while reducing coke formation, as compared with VR-only and plastic-only pyrolysis. The pyrolysis of 9:1 w/w VR: PE (PE with M = 3 MDa) and 9:1 w/w VR/PS (PS with M ≈ 350 kDa) mixtures produced oil in yields of 28.