CLIAMS:WE CLAIM:

1. A process for converting a polymer into one or more hydrocarbon products, the process comprising:
adding the polymer to a reactor, wherein the polymer is in shredded form;
processing the polymer , in the reactor, to undergo Gasolysis reaction at a predefined temperature and pressure in absence of oxygen, wherein the Gasolysis reaction comprises heating of the polymer in presence of a catalyst, and wherein the Gasolysis reaction enables to generate hydrocarbon vapors comprising oil vapors, a gas and solid carbon particles;
passing the hydrocarbon vapors from the reactor to a separation chamber in order to separate the solid carbon particles from the oil vapors and the gas;
passing from the separation chamber,
the solid carbon particles to the reactor, and
the oil vapors and the gas to a refining column;
separating, from the oil vapors, high boiling constituents of the oil vapors and low boiling constituents of the oil vapors, via the refining column;
sending the low boiling constituents of the oil vapors and the gas to a condenser, wherein the oil vapors are condensed in the condenser to obtain the one or more hydrocarbon products and the gas.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the one or more hydrocarbon products and the gas are passed to a phase separator in order to separate the one or more hydrocarbon products from the gas.

3. The process of claim 2, wherein the one or more hydrocarbon products & the gas is used as a fuel for heating the reactor.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the polymer comprises at least one of a Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), a Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), a High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), a Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE), a Polypropylene (PP), a Polystyrene (PS), or plastic waste segregated from municipal solid wastes or a combination thereof.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein the process may be a batch process or a continuous process.

6. The process of claim 1, wherein the pre-defined temperature is within a range of 350° to 360° C and at the atmospheric pressure.

7. The process of claim 1, wherein the catalyst is added in the ratio of 0.1 to 0.2% with the polymer.

8. The process of claim 1, wherein the catalyst is selected from the group of alumina and silicates based catalyst.

9. An assembly for converting a polymer to one or more hydrocarbon products, comprising:
a feeding means, adapted to feed shredded polymer, wherein the feeding means may be selected at least from horizontal feeding means and vertical feeding means and wherein the feeding means is attached to the reactor;
a reactor, adapted to process polymer to undergo Gasolysis reaction under predefined temperature and at an atmospheric pressure;
a separation chamber, adopted to separate solid carbon particles from the hydrocarbon vapors;
a fractionation column, adopted to separate high boiling constituents and low boiling constituents of the oil vapors;
a condenser, enabled to condense the low boiling constituents of the oil vapors to obtain one or more hydrocarbon products (condensable) and a gas (non-condensable);
a cooling tower, adopted to keep the condenser cool;
a phase separator, adopted to separate the one or more hydrocarbon products and the gas;
a gas scrubber, adopted to improve the gas quality;
a gas storage tank, adopted to store the gas obtained from the gas scrubber, wherein the gas is compressed before storing the gas into the gas storage tank;
a bulk storage tank, enabled to store the one or more hydrocarbon products collected in the condenser, wherein the one or more hydrocarbon products are pumped from the condenser using a oil transfer pump;
a dual fire burner, enabled to supply heat to the reactor, wherein the dual fire burner is enabled to use the gas or oil as a fuel;
a sludge removal means, adopted to remove sludge generated during the process in the reactor;
a chimney, enabled to exhaust gas fumes generated in the reactor high into the air;
a load cell, adopted to weigh the accurate weight of the reactor before the beginning of the process and end of the process. ,TagSPECI:FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENT RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10 and Rule 13)

Title of invention:
PROCESS OF CONVERTING A POLYMER TO HYDROCARBON PRODUCTS

Applicant
Patpert Teknow Systems Pvt. Ltd.

A Company Incorporated in India under The Companies Act, 1956
Having address:
S.No. 52/7B-2, Plot # 11,
Near Burhani Park, Tilekarwasti,
Pune - 411048, Maharashtra, India

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS AND PRIORITY
[001] The present application does not claim priority from any patent application.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[002] The present subject matter described herein, in general, relates to conversion of a polymer to hydrocarbon products, more particularly, the present subject matter relates to the process by which the polymer is converted into one or more hydrocarbon products such as an oil, a gas, and a tar.
BACKGROUND
[003] Polymers which are available in many forms have woven their way into our daily lives and pose a tremendous threat to the environment once we throw polymers in environment after use. Over 100 million tones of plastic materials of various kinds are produced annually worldwide whereas used plastic materials have become a common feature of overflowing bins and landfills. Though the attempts have been made to make biodegradable plastic materials, there have not been many conclusive steps towards tackling the existing problems.
[004] Despite of all of the technical advances over the recent years in the recovery of plastic materials, there remains a portion of plastic material that cannot be mechanically recycled due to various reasons and technical hurdles. However, a new generation of conversion technology specifically designed to tackle problems of non-recycled plastic materials, most of which are multilayered or metalized, have been developed worldwide. Pyrolysis reaction is used in the conversion technology which converts plastic material to petroleum products. The benefits presented by these conversion technologies are many folds: transforming non-recycled plastic materials into a valuable commodity such as various hydrocarbon or petroleum products, creating reliable source of alternate energy from an abundant, freely available plastic materials especially the waste plastic materials.
[005] Plastic materials are one of the promising resources for fuel production because of its high heat of combustion and easy availability in locality. The conversion technologies depend upon the types of plastic materials to be treated. Additionally, the effective conversion of the plastic material requires appropriate technologies to be selected which gives optimal output at the end of conversion process with high efficiency.
[006] Therefore there exist few quality concerns during the conversion process such as smooth feeding of plastic material to the reactor, effective conversion of the plastic material into the hydrocarbon or petroleum products, traces of solid carbon particles i.e. presence of wax content in output product.
SUMMARY
[007] Before the present process(s), composition(s) and product(s), enablement are described, it is to be understood that this disclosure in not limited to the particular processes, compositions, products and methodologies described, as there can be multiple possible embodiments of the present disclosure and which are not expressly illustrated in the present disclosure. It is also to be understood that the terminology used in the description is for the purpose of describing the particular versions or embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
[008] The present disclosure discloses a process for converting a polymer (viz. Plastic) into one or more hydrocarbon products (viz. Oil). The process comprises of adding the polymer to a reactor. The polymer is used in shredded form. Further, the process comprises of processing the polymer in the reactor, to undergo Gasolysis reaction at a predefined temperature and pressure in absence of oxygen. The Gasolysis reaction comprises of the process of heating the polymer in presence of a catalyst in the reactor. The polymer undergoing the Gasolysis reaction generates hydrocarbon vapors comprising oil vapors, a gas and solid carbon particles. Additionally, the process comprises passing of the hydrocarbon vapors from the reactor to a separation chamber in order to separate the solid carbon particles which are relatively heavier than the oil vapors and the gas. The process further comprises of passing of the solid carbon particles to the reactor whereas passing the oil vapors and the gas to a fractionation column. The fractionation column separates from the oil vapors, high boiling constituents of the oil vapors and low boiling constituents of the oil vapors. The low boiling constituents of the oil vapors and the gas are eventually passed to a condenser. The low boiling constituents of the oil vapors are condensed in the condenser to obtain the one or more hydrocarbon products.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[009] The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanying figure. In the figure, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The same numbers are used throughout the drawing to refer like features and components.
[0010] Figure 1 illustrates an assembly 100 for a process for converting a plastic material into one or more hydrocarbon products, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
[0011] Figure 2 illustrates a process 200 for converting a plastic material into one or more hydrocarbon products, in accordance with an embodiment of the present subject matter.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0012] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described herein in detail, though the present disclosure is not limited to these embodiments. Constituting elements in the embodiments include elements easily achieved by a person skilled in the art, or elements being substantially equivalent to those elements.
[0013] The words “comprising”, “having”, “containing”, and “including”, and other forms thereof, are intended to be equivalent in meaning and be open ended in that an item or items following any one of these words is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of such item or items, or meant to be limited to only the listed item or items. It must also be noted that as used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
[0014] Figure 1 illustrates an assembly 100 of various components of a process for converting a polymer into one or more hydrocarbon products, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The polymer may comprise at least one of a Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), a Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), a High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), a Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE), a Polypropylene (PP), a Polystyrene (PS) and a plastic waste segregated from municipal solid wastes or a combination thereof. The following description is explained considering the polymer to be plastic material for enabling the disclosure. However, the use of other materials from the polymer category is obvious to those persons skilled in the art and is within the scope of the disclosure. The present subject matter discloses a process comprising heating of the plastic material to undergo a Gasolysis reaction in a reactor104 to obtain one or more hydrocarbon products. The hydrocarbon products include a transportation fuel, furnace oil, a carbon black/ tar and a gas.
[0015] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, the assembly 100 comprises of various components such as at least a horizontal feeding means 102-A and a vertical feeding means 102-B, the reactor 104, a separation chamber 106, a fractionation column 108, a condenser 110, a cooling tower 112, a water pump 114, a phase separator 116, a gas scrubber 118, a compressor 120, a gas storage tank 122, an oil transfer pump 124, a bulk storage tank 126, a dual fire (oil & gas) burner 128, a sludge removal means 130, a chimney 132, a load cell 134. The process can be described in detail through its various components.
REACTOR 104
[0016] In one embodiment, the reactor 104 is enabled to receive the plastic material through the feeding means (i.e. 102-A and/or 102-B). The reactor 104 is a catalytic reactor wherein catalyst is added in the ratio of 0.1 to 0.2% with the plastic material to undergo the Gasolysis reaction after heating the reactor 104 at a predefined temperature range of 350 º C to 360º C and at an atmospheric pressure.
[0017] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the plastic material for the process may be Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE), Polypropylene (PP), and Polystyrene (PS) or plastic waste segregated from municipal solid wastes or a combination thereof. A plastic waste material or a rejected plastic material may be preferred for the process. The municipal solid wastes, agriculture wastes, e-wastes comprising the plastic content may also be utilized as a raw material for the process. The plastic material before adding to the reactor 104 may be segregated. Further, the plastic material is usually crushed or shredded to a size suitable to the size of inlet of the reactor 104. Thereafter the plastic material is added to the reactor 104 through at least a horizontal feeding means 102-A and a vertical feeding means 102-B.
[0018] In one more embodiment of the present disclosure, the reactor 104 is provided with the dual fire burner 128. In the initial stage of the process Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is used as a start-up fuel for providing heat to the reactor 104. As the process goes on, one of the final products of the process is the gas, wherein the gas is stored in the gas storage tank 122 and is used as a source of energy to provide heat to the reactor 104.
[0019] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, heating of the plastic material facilitates thermal cracking of the polymer (i.e. plastic material) under the Gasolysis reaction. In the Gasolysis reaction, the thermal cracking takes place, wherein the thermal cracking is the process of converting the polymer into a monomer or a pool containing mixture of the monomers. The long-chain polymer is broken down to shorter chain polymer.. Furthermore, due to the thermal cracking of the plastic material, the plastic material is melted and vaporized, thereby generating hydrocarbon vapors inside the reactor 104. The hydrocarbon vapors comprises a mixture of lower hydrocarbons i.e. C1 to C6 (gaseous phase) and higher hydrocarbons i.e. C7 to C30 (liquid phase). The reactor 104 is further connected to the separation chamber 106, wherein the generated hydrocarbon vapors are passed to the separation chamber 106.
SEPARATION CHAMBER 106
[0020] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the separation chamber 106 is enabled to receive the hydrocarbon vapors generated in the reactor 104. The hydrocarbon vapors may comprise of oil vapors, a gas and solid carbon particles. The separation chamber 106, on receiving the hydrocarbon vapors from the reactor 104, is enabled to raise the hydrocarbon vapors inside the separation chamber 106 at a predetermined speed to separate out the solid carbon particles from the hydrocarbon vapors. The separation chamber 106 may be of invert-conical shape, wherein the separation chamber 106 may have the broader area at the top than the bottom. When the hydrocarbon vapors are introduced in the separation chamber 106 from the bottom end the hydrocarbon vapors are exposed to an environment inside the separation chamber 106 where lighter constituents of the hydrocarbon vapors are raised higher than relatively heavier constituents like the solid carbon particle of the hydrocarbon vapors due to density difference and lowering of the speed of the hydrocarbon vapors with which the hydrocarbon vapors entered the separation chamber 106. The relatively lighter hydrocarbon vapors and the gas are taken out from an outlet at the top end of the separation chamber 106 and the relatively lighter hydrocarbon vapors and the gas are transferred to the fractionation column 108. Whereas, the heavy solid carbon particles which are unable to rise in the height inside the separation chamber 106 due to relatively high density got settled at the bottom of the separation chamber 106 and eventually dropped into the reactor 104 again for re-processing. The purpose of the separation chamber 106 is of two-fold: the separation chamber 106 re-processes the solid carbon particles from the hydrocarbon vapors which were on way to downstream of the process and secondly the separation chamber 106 ensures elimination of the free solid carbon particles from the one or more hydrocarbon products of the process. According to preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, process of 2000 kg capacity was carried out, wherein amount of the hydrocarbon vapors release was 80 to 90 % of total mass of the plastic material in the reactor 104 and whereas the amount of the solid carbon particle was 5 to 10% of total mass of the plastic material in the reactor 104. The separation chamber 106 separates 5 to 10% of the solid carbon particles and sent back the solid carbon particles to the reactor 104 for re-processing. The solid carbon particles generally forms wax during the process, wherein the wax formed blocks inlet and outlet of the fractionation column 108 and frequent removal/cleaning of the wax from the inlet and the outlet of the fractionation column 108 increases maintenance cost of plant on which the process is being carried out. Therefore by minimizing the traces of the solid carbon particles, the wax formation in the fractionation column 108 has been reduced. Further, the chances of obtaining the traces of the solid carbon particles in the output product i.e. the one or more hydrocarbon products are also minimized.
[0021] According to preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, laboratory tests were carried out over oil sample (i.e. one of the hydrocarbon products of the process). The oil sample tested was of two kinds: the oil sample 1- the oil sample obtained by the process when the process was carried out without installing the separation chamber and the oil sample 2- the oil sample obtained by the process when the process was carried out with the separation chamber installed. The table 1 illustrates the test result for the oil sample 1.

Sr. No. Test Description Requirement as per
IS 1460-2005 Test Results Test Methods
1 Ash content % by wt 0.01 Max Nil IS 1448 (P4) 2008
2 RBCR ( On 10% Residue) % by wt 0.01 Max 0.32 IS 1448 (P8) 2003
3 Cetane Index - 46 Min 84 ASTM D 4737-03
4 Pour Point ° C Winter 3 Max
Summer 15 Max 21 IS 1448 (P10) 2003
5 Distillation Recovery % by vol
@ 350 ° C BSII:85Min
BSIII:NS 74 IS 1448 (P18) 2006
6 Distillation Recovery % by vol
@ 360 ° C BSII:NS
BSIII:95 Min 79 IS 1448 (P18) 2006
7 Distillation Recovery % by vol
@ 370 ° C BSII:95 Min
BSIII: NS 84 IS 1448 (P18) 2006
8 Flash Point ( Abel) ° C 35 Min 67 IS 1448 (P20) 2004
9 Density @ 15 ° C kg/m3 BSII: 820-860
BSIII:820-845 791.5 IS 1448 (P16) 2007
10 Sediments % by wt BSII:0.05 Max
BSIII:NS 0.013 IS 1448 (P30) 2003
11 Gross Calorific Value cal/g Approx. in the order
of 10500 10730 IS 1448 (P6) 2007
12 Kinematic Viscosity cSt
@ 40 ° C BSII:2.0 to 5.0
BSIII:2.0 to 4.5 3.256 IS 1448 (P25) 2007
13 pH NS 7.92 pH metry
TABLE 1

Sr. No. Test Description Test Result Test Method
1 Gross Calorific Value cal/g 10915 IS 1448 (P6) 2007
2 pH 4.21 - 6.15 * pH metry
3 Kinematic Viscosity @ 40 ° C cSt 2.127 IS 1448 (P25) 2007
4 Density @ 15 ° C kg/m3 813.6 IS 1448 (P16) 2007
5 Pour Point ° C 21 IS 1448 (P10) 2008
6 Flash point (Abel) ° C 9.5 IS 1448 (P20) 2007
7 Cetane Index 55 ASTM D 4737-09
Note 1: * Stable pH reading is not observed due to sample nature.
TABLE 2
Whereas table 2 illustrates the test result for the oil sample 2.From the tables 1 and 2, it is clear that the values obtained for the pour point and flash point of the oil the sample 1 were 21° C and 67° C respectively and whereas the values of the pour point and the flash point for the oil sample 2 were 21° C and 9.5° C respectively. Therefore, substantial decrease in the value of the flash point indicates that the solid carbon particle i.e. the wax content in the oil sample 2 has been reduced which resulted in improvement of the quality of the oil sample 2. Also, above test results yielded in considerable improvement in values of other parameters such as gross calorific value, wherein the gross calorific value obtained for the oil sample 2 was greater than the gross calorific value of the oil sample 1. The test result also illustrates that the value of the cetane index for the oil sample 2 reached to the standard range of value of 55 as per ASTM D4737-09 standards which was 84 for the oil sample 1.
Generally, it is difficult to maintain homogeneity of raw material i.e. the plastic material used for the process because the plastic material used is not usually segregated before the process begins. The test was carried out using the segregated plastic material and eventually the oil sample was obtained to check the values of various parameters. Table 3 illustrates the test results for the oil sample obtained by the process carried over the segregated plastic material. Test results from the table 3 shows that flash point value obtained was even better for the oil sample obtained by the process carried over the segregated plastic material. The test results illustrated in the table 2 and table 3 shows the substantial improvement in the various parameters of the oil sample as mentioned in the table 2 and table 3, which is direct indication of reduced amount of the solid carbon particles from the hydrocarbon vapors, reduction in wax formation, and reduction in the traces of the solid carbon particles from the oil sample when the process was carried out with the separation chamber 106. Finally, the process comprises of passing the gas and the oil vapors to the fractionation column 108 after separating the solid carbon particles from the hydrocarbon vapors by the separation chamber 106.
Sr. No. Test Description Test Results
1 Density (Kg/m3) at 15 ° C 820.9
2 Kinematic viscosity (mm2/s (cSt))
@ 50 ° C
@100 ° C
5.01
1.874
3 Carbon residue (mass %) Nil
4 Sulphur (mass %) Nil
5 Ash (mass %) Nil
6 Vanadium (mg/kg), ppm Nil
7 Sodium (mg/kg), ppm Nil
8 Aluminum + silicon (mg/kg), ppm Nil
9 Total sediment, potential (mass %) 2.2
10 Water content (volume %) 78.6
11 Flash point ° C 5
12 Pour point ° C 17
13 Gross calorific value (Kcal/kg) 11534
14 Acidity, mg of KOH/gm of sample 7.61
15 Copper strip corrosion for 3 hrs. at 50 ° C Passes
TABLE 3
Fractionation Column 108
[0022] In one embodiment of the present disclosure the fractionation column 108 is enabled to receive the hydrocarbon vapors from the separation chamber 106. The hydrocarbon vapors comprises of the oil vapors and the gas and when the hydrocarbon vapors are passed through the fractionation column 108, the fractionation column 108 separates high boiling constituents and low boiling constituents of the oil vapors. The fractionation column 108 works on the principal of distillation for separating out the high boiling constituents and the low boiling constituents of the oil vapor. The fractioning process is carried out inside the fractionation column 108. After the separation, the low boiling constituents are the passed to the condenser 110.
CONDENSER 110
[0023] In one embodiment of the present disclosure the condenser 110 is vertically mounted. A separate cooling tower is mounted to cool the condenser 110. The condenser is shell and tube type, wherein the shell side is provided with cold water circulation. During the condensation, i.e. the gas (i.e. non-condensable) are separated & oil (i.e. condensable) as one or more hydrocarbon products. The oil & the gas are carried towards the phase separator 116 in the next stage of the process.
PHASE SEPARATOR 116
[0024] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the phase separator 116 is enabled to receive the one or more hydrocarbon products and the gases from the condenser 110. The one or more hydrocarbon product and the gas are stored in the phase separator 116 for time period to separate out one or more hydrocarbon products and the gas. After expiry of a predefined time period, the one or more hydrocarbon products are pumped out from the bottom of the phase separator 116 using an oil transfer pump 124. The oil transfer pump 124 transfers and stores the one or more hydrocarbon products in the bulk storage tank 126.The one or more hydrocarbon products are used in various industries as a furnace fuel or as a fuel in diesel engines .Furthermore, the gas from the phase separator 116 are passed to the gas scrubber 118.
GAS SCRUBBER 118
[0025] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the gas scrubber 118 is used in process-air applications to eliminate potentially harmful dust, aerosols and pollutants. A liquid, in general water added with active chemicals is sprayed in to the gases of the hydrocarbon vapor coming out from the phase separator 116. The dust, the aerosols and the pollutants in the stream of gases of the hydrocarbon vapor are removed by either absorption or chemical reactions with the water solution. The gas scrubber 118 removes traces of liquid droplets from the stream of gases of the hydrocarbon vapor to protect downstream equipment in the process from damage and failure. It is typically used at the upstream stage of process that contains dry desiccants or mechanical equipment such as compressors like the one compressor 120 is used in the process. After treating the un-condensed gases in the gas scrubber 118, the un-condensed gases are passed to the gas storage tank 122 via the compressor 120, wherein the compressor 120 compresses the gas for further use in the process as a source of energy.
[0026] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or High Speed Diesel (HSD) is used as a start-up fuel to begin the process. Moreover, once the sufficient amount of the compressed gas stored in the gas storage tank 122 is available it is used as a source of energy for the reactor 104 in place of the LPG. By utilizing the output of the process as the source energy makes the process a closed loop and energy efficient with the environment dully taken care of. For this reason the dual fire burner 128 is installed to the reactor 104.
[0027] In another embodiment of the present disclosure after completing the process, sludge formed during the process is removed through the sludge removal means 130 attached to the reactor 104. The sludge formed after the process contains carbon waste, tar, metal scrap and other wastes. Few ingredients from the sludge are utilized in various industries like carbon waste after drying can be best used as fuel in solid fuel fired boilers, road construction etc with few additives. The metal scrap can be recycled and re-used.
[0028] In another embodiment of the present disclosure the weight of the plastic material inside the reactor is weighed by enabling the load cell 134. The load cell 134 is placed beneath the reactor 104 which ensures correct amount of sludge removal and eventually safe operation. .
[0029] Figure 2 illustrates the process 200 through a flow diagram for converting the plastic material to the one or more hydrocarbon products. In step 202, comprises of adding the plastic material to the reactor 104 along with the catalysts. The plastic material is added in shredded or crushed form. The plastic material is added to the reactor 104 via at least the horizontal feeding means 102-A or the vertical feeding means 102-B attached. Also, the catalysts are added to the reactor 104, wherein the catalysts are taken in the ratio of 0.1 to 0.2% with the plastic material.
[0030] In step 204, using the heat source the reactor 104 is heated at the temperature range of 350 to 360º C and at atmospheric pressure and in the absence of the oxygen.
[0031] In step 206, the Gasolysis reaction takes place inside the reactor 104 due to heating. The Gasolysis reaction generates the hydrocarbon vapors of the molten plastic material under predetermined temperature and at atmospheric pressure. Due to the Gasolysis reaction the catalytic cracking takes place inside the reactor 104, wherein the catalytic cracking enables the long polymeric chains of the plastic material to break into smaller polymeric chains.
[0032] In step 208, the hydrocarbon vapors comprising of oil vapors, a gas and solid carbon particles are passed to the separation chamber 106, wherein the separation chamber 106 is attached to the reactor 104.
[0033] In step 210, the solid carbon particles from the hydrocarbon vapors are separated from the oil vapors and the gas inside the separation chamber 106. When the hydrocarbon vapors are introduced in the separation chamber 106 from the bottom end the hydrocarbon vapors are exposed to an environment inside the separation chamber 106 where lighter constituents of the hydrocarbon vapors are raised higher in the height than the heavier constituents like the solid carbon particles of the hydrocarbon vapors due to lowering of the speed of the hydrocarbon vapors with which the hydrocarbon vapors entered the separation chamber 106. The separation chamber 106 contains an outlet at the top end from where relatively lighter hydrocarbon vapors and the gas are taken out and transferred to the fractionation column 108. The heavy solid carbon particles are settled at the bottom of the separation chamber 106 and thereafter eventually dropped to the reactor 104 again for re-processing.
[0034] In step 212, after separating out the solid carbon particles in the step 210, the gas and the oil vapors are sent to the fractionation column 108 for separating out the high boiling constituents and the low boiling constituents of the oil vapors.
[0035] In step 214, the high boiling constituents and the low boiling constituents of the oil vapors are separated by the fractionation column 108.
[0036] In step 216, the low boiling constituents which are separated in the step 214 are sent to the condenser 110.
[0037] In step 218, condensation of the low boiling constituents of the oil vapors results in one or more hydrocarbon products in liquid state and the gases remains un-condensed in gaseous state. The un-condensed gases are separated from the one or more hydrocarbon products by using the phase separator 116.
[0038] In view of the variety of embodiments of the present disclosure, it will be appreciated that various modifications or changes can be made in the preferred embodiments without departing from the principle of the disclosure. These and other modifications in the nature of the disclosure or the preferred embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein. It is to be particularly understood that the former descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the disclosure and not as a limitation.