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Advances in the recycling of plastic wastes for metallurgical coke production

  • SPECIAL FEATURE: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Chemical Feedstock Recycling 9
  • Published:
Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper aims to provide useful knowledge on the use of plastic wastes as additives to coking blends for the production of metallurgical coke. It focuses on the influence that the composition of plastic wastes has upon the development of coal fluidity, the generation of pressure during the coking process and the quality of the cokes produced in a semipilot oven. Several plastic mixtures of two types of thermoplastics, polyolefins (HDPE, LDPE and PP) and aromatic polymers such as PET, were used. The overall addition rate of plastics to a medium-fluid coal blend was 2 wt%. It is shown that polyolefins, weaker modifiers of coal fluidity, may be employed to maintain coke quality but that they have a negative effect on the generation of coking pressure, while plastics of the aromatic type such as PET, a strong modifier of coal fluidity, can be used to counteract the generation of coking pressure. From the results, it is deduced that the protocol developed is useful for determining the optimum amount of each type of polymer (polyolefins and aromatic polymers) that is needed in order to counteract the generation of pressure during the coking process and to maintain the quality of the cokes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the European Commission for financial support through the RFCS Programme (Contract Number: RFSR-CT-2005-00001) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project CTM2004-03254). We also thank the Spanish recycling company Abornasa and ArcelorMittal in Spain for participating in the project.

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  1. Instituto Nacional del Carbón, INCAR-CSIC, Apartado 73, 33080, Oviedo, Spain

    María A. Diez & Ramón Alvarez

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  1. María A. Diez
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  2. Ramón Alvarez
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Correspondence to María A. Diez.

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Diez, M.A., Alvarez, R. Advances in the recycling of plastic wastes for metallurgical coke production. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 15, 247–255 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-012-0103-8

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