Pyrolysis oil brokerage

A certificate of analysis, usually written CoA, is the document a buyer reads before anything else. For pyrolysis oil it is longer than most people expect, and the parameters below are the ones an independent laboratory reports on a tyre pyrolysis oil sample. Each one carries its test method, and the method belongs in the contract next to the limit: two laboratories running different methods do not produce comparable numbers.

The chlorine trap. A pyrolysis oil certificate carries at least two numbers that both get called chlorine, and they are not interchangeable. *Total chlorine content* to ASTM D7536 measures everything in the sample. *Chloride* by combustion ion chromatography to ASTM D7359 measures the ionic fraction, and it comes out lower. A seller who quotes the second figure when the buyer asked for the first is not necessarily being dishonest, but the cargo will be rejected on arrival all the same.

So when a buyer sets a chlorine limit, settle which method it refers to before you agree the number. And expect the organic chloride to be asked for separately as well: that is the fraction a hydrotreater cares about, and it is the one that is hardest to remove.

For what these parameters mean in general terms, our parameters explained page covers them one by one, and test methods and analysis explains why the method reference belongs in the contract rather than in the covering email.

The section above lists parameters without limits, because the acceptance value belongs in your contract. The limits below are different: they are the published specifications that industrial steam crackers run to, collected in the peer reviewed literature. They are what the receiving plant is measuring against when it reads your CoA. Chlorine at 3 ppm is the one that decides most cargoes, and untreated oil from mixed plastic waste is commonly reported around 1460 ppm, which is a factor of roughly 500.

Note the nitrogen row. The 100 ppm figure is the naphtha specification; a gas oil feed is allowed 2000 ppm. A buyer quoting one of those two numbers at you is telling you which cut they intend to blend your cargo into.

This is the same argument as the three fractions above, in numbers. Contamination is not spread evenly through the barrel: it concentrates in the heavy end. Calcium runs 17 ppm in the light fraction and 225 ppm in the heavy, against a cracker limit of 0.5 ppm, and lead goes from 0.04 ppm to 37 ppm against a limit near 0.05 ppm. That is why a distillation cut changes who your buyer is, and why a full range oil is a harder sell than the same volume split.

The fractions are defined by carbon number and boiling point: light is up to C20 and boils below 250 degrees C, medium is up to C30 and boils below 450 degrees C, heavy is above C30 with a final boiling point above 450 degrees C.

Tyre derived oil is a different product with different buyers, and the numbers show why. Crude TPO carries about 1.1 wt percent sulphur, roughly twenty times a road diesel limit, which is the single reason it goes to carbon black, industrial fuel or a hydrotreater rather than straight into a fuel pool. Hydrotreatment takes it to about 0.145 wt percent, and at the same time drops the flash point to 35 degrees C, which changes the storage and transport classification.

Density and sulphur here are independently confirmed by the public product data of a European TPO producer, which reports 920 kg per cubic metre and 1 percent sulphur.

Whether pyrolysis oil is legally a waste or a product decides the entire paperwork chain, and it is the most common reason a first cargo sits at the terminal. If the oil is still a waste, a cross-border shipment falls under the EU Waste Shipment Regulation (EU) 2024/1157: prior written notification and consent from the competent authority at both ends, a financial guarantee, and a movement document travelling with the cargo. If end-of-waste status has been established, it moves as a normal product.

The catch is that this is decided nationally. The same oil can be a product in one member state and a waste in the next, and the receiving authority's view is the one that counts. Treat it as a commercial risk to be settled before fixing freight, not as a formality for the shipping department.

Customs classification is equally unsettled. There is no dedicated CN code for pyrolysis oil. Depending on origin, aromatic content and intended use, parcels have moved under headings 2707, 2710, 2713 and 3824; a UK advance tariff ruling classified heavy plastic-derived pyrolysis oil under 2710 19 71. Agree the code with your customs agent and, where the value justifies it, obtain a binding tariff information before the vessel loads.

For plastic-derived oil, certification is not administration, it is the product. ISCC PLUS with mass balance chain of custody is what allows a polymer producer downstream to sell a certified circular grade. Without a credible, auditable chain of custody the same molecules trade as fuel, and the difference between those two prices is the whole business case for a pyrolysis plant.

For biomass-derived oil heading into an energy outlet, ISCC EU or REDcert is the relevant route, with the sustainability characteristics and GHG saving carried on a proof of sustainability.

We will ask for your certificate scope early. A plant certified for the wrong product group, or with the pyrolysis unit outside the certified boundary, is a problem worth finding in week one.

We work both directions: plant operators with production to place, and refiners, crackers, carbon black producers and fuel blenders looking for consistent feed. Because we are a broker and never take title, we have no reason to talk a marginal cargo into a buyer who cannot run it.

• COA and retained sample first, price second. We ask for a full analysis and a representative retained sample before we approach anyone. It is faster for everybody than three rounds of hopeful indications.
• Trial parcel, then bulk. Most first deals run as IBCs or an isotank into the buyer's own lab, then a flexi or a parcel tanker once the numbers hold.
• Independent survey at load and discharge. Sampling and sealing by a recognised inspection company, with retained samples held by both sides.
• Agree the failure case in the contract. What happens if chlorine comes back above the limit, rejection, price adjustment, or reprocessing at whose cost, belongs in the contract, not in a dispute after discharge.
• Consistency is the real product. Buyers commit to volume when batches look alike. A plant that can show a stable rolling analysis will be taken seriously well before one quoting a single flattering COA.

Pyrolysis oil does not sit still. It oxidises, and the oxidation is not a slow cosmetic decline: it produces peroxides, which at higher concentrations are a genuine explosion hazard rather than a quality complaint. This is the part of the trade that surprises newcomers most, and it is why oxidative stability appears as a line in serious buyers' specifications.

The practical consequence is uncomfortable. A parcel that tested in specification the week it was made can be out of specification a month later after a hot voyage, with nobody having done anything wrong. If you are selling on a load analysis and the buyer is testing on arrival, that gap is yours to manage.

• Exclude oxygen. Nitrogen blanketing of tanks and nitrogen flushing of ISO containers before filling is the single most effective control. Research on refined oils shows inert gas flushing suppresses oxidation almost completely, even at elevated temperature.
• Add an antioxidant at the production site, not on arrival. Once peroxides have formed you are managing a problem rather than preventing one. Antioxidants also lift the measured oxidative stability, which is often exactly the specification line that is failing.
• Shorten the gap. Minimising the time between production and processing does more than most interventions. Material that moves promptly needs less chemistry.
• Control the light ends and the condensation. Air ingress during condensation and handling promotes the formation of light oxygenates, so inerting the process rather than only the tank pays twice.
• But check the contract first. Many supply agreements prohibit additives outright, with oxidation stability improvers as the one common exception. Get the approval in writing before you dose. See additives and blending.

None of this is exotic. It is standard practice for unstable oils and it is well covered in the literature. What is striking is how many producers we meet who have never been told, ship without inerting, and then find themselves arguing about a discharge analysis they cannot explain. If your cargo has already landed in that argument, cargo claims sets out the route through it.