In the Russian Federation with the current production of styrene, there is a substantial amount of distillation residue of ethylbenzene and styrene (KORE, KORS) - a mixture of organic substances with the styrene content of 10-50%, the oligostyrene content of 5-30%. These wastes are used as a raw material in the production of antioxidant "Dilant"; they are mainly used as a component of boiler fuel. The further forecast growth of styrene production volumes in Russia will only exacerbate the problem of utilization of these wastes. Due to the high content of heavy unsaturated and aromatic compounds in the KORE / KORS, in our opinion, one of the most promising methods for the processing of this waste may be preparation of sintering aids (pitches) by means of their thermopolycondensation. The aim is to assess the possibility of preparation of pitches from styrene waste products of. In this paper we consider the process of a long liquid-phase thermolysis of KORE to distillate products and high-carbon residue (pitches). For the initial KORE the fractional composition and component composition were determined by chromatography-mass spectrometry. The process of liquid phase thermolysis was carried out at the temperature of 320-350 degrees C and pressure exc. 0.01-0.02 MPa. For these conditions the averaged material of the balance and the samples of pitches and distillate products were obtained. There is a strict dependence of reduction of the average molecular weight of distillate products on the increase in pressure or temperature. The resulting pitches differ significantly by properties from oil and coal ones. They have a significantly higher softening point, which is an advantage, and a lower coking, which is a serious drawback for pitches used in the production of electrodes. Distillate products were investigated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The analysis of compositions of raw material and liquid products showed that: 1) Low-boiling components, which probably do not enter chemical transformation, are removed in the distillate. 2) High-boiling compounds containing two benzene rings undergo deconstruction or condensation, so they are practically absent in distillate fractions. 3) Styrene, which was absent in the raw material, was detected in reaction products. The formation of styrene can be explained by dehydration of phenylethanols; deconstruction of 1-(1-phenylethyl)hydroxy- 1-phenylethane; the formation of styrene can occur at the depolymerisation of oligomers contained in the raw material. 4) The relative content of ethylbenzene in the thermolysis products increased twice, which can be explained by the low reactivity of the compound contributing to its accumulation, and by the destruction of 1-(1-phenylethyl)-hydroxy-1-phenylethane. 5) In addition to the initial components products of thermolysis have new oxygenated compounds probably formed as a result of dealkylation of heavy polycondensed compounds. Conclusions. KORE was determined, the liquid phase thermolysis was studied at temperature of 320-350 degrees C and pressure of 0.01-0.2 MPa. The averaged material balance of thermolysis of KORE was obtained under various conditions. The possibility of preparation of high-boiling pitches from this raw material was demonstrated. The main characteristics of the produced pitches were identified: the softening temperature of 98-128 degrees C, the coking ability of 23-37%.
