Alternative Production Techniques for Hydro-Carbons from WASTE PLASTIC!

I have no idea if this topic has been dealt with yet, but i thought it relevant enough to bring it up.

There is a plant in Nagpur-India called Unique Waste Plastic Management and Research Company Pvt. Ltd. It is run by a husband-wife team of Umesh Zadgaonkar & Dr. Alka Zadgaonkar.

The fact about this plant is that it is the only one in the world that produces Hydro-Carbons from Plastic Waste as a "Commercially Viable Continuous Process" Currently it is running on full capacity at 5000 ltrs a day, due to be expanded to 25,000 ltrs a day by december.

Although scientists have been trying to convert waste-plastic into hydro-carbons for some time now, Dr. Alka Zadgaonkar is the first person to have done so in a commercially viable set-up

Her process uses a catalyst (her invention) for the conversion. There is no need to segregate and clean the plastic. There is absolutely no pollution as the byproducts are Hydro-Carbons, both liquid and gasseous, and some chlorine.

The fuel thus obtained has very very low sulphur content and can be used in engines as it is, but even so with a little refining it will meet the most stringent emission norms easily.

Here are the links to a few articles

dnaindia.com...
dnaindia.com...
dnaindia.com...

I think this is truly the future of waste management.

Your commets and views would be appreciated

OOh I wonder if their "invention" can fit in my garage so I never have to stop at a normal gas station again...

(I didn't read the articles... lazy and tired...)

Originally posted by Shaker
OOh I wonder if their "invention" can fit in my garage so I never have to stop at a normal gas station again...

(I didn't read the articles... lazy and tired...)

You'd have to drink an awfull lot of soda to get 10 galons a week though :p
Or you could collect all plastic waste of your neighbourhood and sell your exes fuel.

But apart from making the fuel, you still need to process the plastic too. That usualy takes quite a bit of space, storage of whole bottles and other plastic items, shredding them, storage of shreded plastic, converting them to fuel, storage of the fuel.

And lastly, you'd need to find a way to get rid of all the chlorine.

Originally posted by thematrix

Originally posted by Shaker
OOh I wonder if their "invention" can fit in my garage so I never have to stop at a normal gas station again...

(I didn't read the articles... lazy and tired...)

You'd have to drink an awfull lot of soda to get 10 galons a week though :p
Or you could collect all plastic waste of your neighbourhood and sell your exes fuel.

But apart from making the fuel, you still need to process the plastic too. That usualy takes quite a bit of space, storage of whole bottles and other plastic items, shredding them, storage of shreded plastic, converting them to fuel, storage of the fuel.

And lastly, you'd need to find a way to get rid of all the chlorine.

Well... I could use my backyard too I guess.... as for the chlorine, I'll sell it to places that need it for pools.... "Shaker's Pool Cleaner."

Very interesting, if true, wich it seems to be good things may come. That is if the oil mogels dont destroy every trace of its existence before it can go mainstream


Seriously, ive thought for a while now that oil companies can make there own oil and we are just being played as pawns for their financial gain. We are very technilogically advanced....seems like we would be at least making an attempt to create oil.....we did it with diamonds.

The oldschool mob would love to get their hands on this tech, waste management is one of their biggest fronts and turning that into a profitable thing would just be godlike for them!

Plastics essentially ARE hydrocarbons. Car tyres are hydrocarbons as well. North Korea, fuel strapped, has busses and trucks that drive on fuel produced from reprocessed tires. The exhaust and smell is reportedly horrible though. That's because among others the cross netting of the polymers in car tires is usually with sulfur.

We already recylce hydro carbons when we go and donate our plastics for recycling. Car tires as well, and for that matter any petrol product out there that is recycled.

Waste plastic is a hydro-carbon, more often than not it is either polypropelene or a polyethylene.

The technique is already patented and Dr. Zadgaonkar has signed an MOU with Indian Oil Corporation (one of the major Indian Oil Companies) for use of the technology. Infact IOC thoroughly tested her fuel in all respects and found it to be of a high quality, with very very low sulphur content.

She started her pilot plant with the help of a Bank Loan but it is IOC that is funding her expansion plans. They want to see the feasability of the project at larger scales before they set one up themselves.

Infact Dr. Zadgaonkar claims to have been approached by several international Oil behemots from BP to Shell, besides Reliance (Pvt. Indian oil refining company with the largest refinary in the world) but she says she prefers a government organization as her aim is not only profits but the betterment of her country (total idealist if you ask me)

Actually scientists have been working on such projects for some time but she is the first one to have done it in an Economically Feasable manner. The problem has been braking down the hydro-carbon chains of plastics which are longer than that of fuel, in an efficient manner, and without any environmental hazards. Her catalyst seems to be able to do that real well.

I just hope the technology is commercialised real soon. Think about it. We avert the oil crisis and get rid of all the environmentally polluting plastics all in one go