Hydrothermal liquefaction

Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) technology has a high potential for the production of oil from unsorted plastic waste. HTL of polyolefins (PE, PP and PS) is a process developed originally for converting biomass into value-added products.

Recently, there are initiatives to apply HTL to plastic waste. HTL uses hot water at near- and supercritical conditions as the reaction medium. The process occurs in a single fluid-phase as the organic compounds are readily dissolved in the water with lower dielectric constant under these conditions.

The need of high energy-consuming drying step is avoided which increases the energy efficiency and allows the use of wet feedstock and slurries.