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| JBI's Plastic2Oil Technology Turns Waste Into FuelThe
Ontario, Canada based company, JBI is actively using a technology
called Plastic2Oil, which converts waste plastic into low sulfur fuels
-- such as diesel, furnace oil, and fuel oil. Although it's not a
panacea solution to the energy crisis, their technology addresses the
issue of what to do with plastic waste.  | | |
by Hank Mills
Pure Energy Systems News
To
continue surviving on this planet, our civilization needs radical, game
changing energy technologies to enter the market place. Without such
technologies, human civilization is going to collapse -- perhaps sooner
than we think. However, in addition to truly exotic energy technologies,
there are more mundane technologies that could help us deal with
various issues we are facing. One big issue that mankind needs to sort
out, is the massive amount of waste we produce. This is a huge problem,
because the easiest solutions -- burying, dumping, or burning the waste,
are not environmentally friendly.
JBI's Plastic2Oil technology
may provide a solution of what to do with the huge amount of plastic
waste we produce. As JBI points out on their website, plastic waste is
one of the least recycled types of waste (with only 7% of plastic waste
being recycled in 2009). It is also a type of waste that is constantly
increasing. In fact, each year the USA produces 30 million tons of
plastic waste. The Plastic2Oil technology can turn this huge amount of
waste into a number of different low sulfur fuels, such as diesel,
furnace oil, and fuel oil. It can do so in a very environmentally
"green" way, while consuming relatively little energy.
The
technology is not that complicated. As feedstock, it can accept a wide
range of plastics, including those that are unsorted, unwashed, or
difficult to recycle. The main source of plastic waste the company is
using at this time is from industrial sources that produce huge amounts
of waste annually. In fact, some of these companies send the waste to
plastic only landfills that can be mined to obtain the needed feedstock.
Once the material is obtained, it can be cut up into small chunks
before it is utilized, but recent advancements have led to the ability
of putting larger pieces of plastic directly into the system.
To
start the process, 1800 pounds of waste is loaded into a hopper with a
forklift. Examples of the materials being loaded can include plastic
fuel tanks, car bumpers, component holders, product packaging,
pharmaceutical packaging, and agricultural film. Once the hopper is in
the reactor, natural gas is burned to generate heat and get the process
started. At this point a catalyst helps break the plastic hydrocarbons
into shorter chain of molecules. The off-gases that are not going to be
collected as fuel are used to produce heat and keep the process going.
This limits the external energy required to only 67 kilowatts, which is
used to operate pumps and fans. As the process continues, the fuel oil
and diesel are condensed from a gaseous state into a liquid state, and
are collected. They are placed into temporary fuel tanks. During the
process an automated system controls everything.
It only takes
less than one hour for the system to process 1,800 pounds of plastic
waste. Over 90% of the hydrocarbons in the plastic are recovered, and
turned into fuel. For every 8.3 pounds of waste that entered the system
about one gallon of fuel is produced. The fuel is considered to be high
quality, because it contains little sulfur. Only 2% of the weight of the
plastic remains as solid waste in the form of carbon. This carbon can
actually be burned, and has a heating value of 10,600 BTU/lb.
The
whole Plastic2Oil process is also green in that emits very little
pollution into the atmosphere -- about as much as a natural gas furnace
of the same size. In fact, 14.87% of the gas emitted into the atmosphere
is oxygen. Due to the minimum harmful emissions released, filters and
scrubbers are not needed. Although some small amount of pollution is
being emitted, it is far less pollution than if the plastic was shipped
off to China to be burned.
An entire Plastic2Oil plant is stated
to only be 2,000 square foot in size, and requires 3,000 square foot of
operating space. There is a height requirement of 24 foot.
Perhaps
the only negative I see is that the company does not have a positive
cash flow, according to their website. I find this odd, due to the fact
they get the plastic feedstock for free. It makes me think the process
may be expensive. Also, they are charging a customer $109.80 dollars a
barrel for their fuel. This does not seem like a cheap price. However,
there may be other issues we are not aware of that is preventing them
from having a positive cash flow. Perhaps one answer might be they are
investing a lot of money into expansion. This could be the case, because
the website claims their current priority is to install two more
processing plants at their Niagara Falls facility, and three more at
another site.
I think a technology like this one has promise,
both now and in the future. Even after exotic energy technologies like
cold fusion have entered the marketplace, we will be using oil as fuel
for a number of years. Even after we stop using fossil fuels, we will
still need oil to make fertilizer and plastics.
Maybe with cold
fusion or other exotic energy technologies bringing the cost of energy
down to near zero, a company like this one could sell their product at a
lower cost. With near zero cost energy, mining landfills for plastic
would be cheaper, and transporting the plastic to the site would also
cost less.
More immediately, I think they could benefit from
buying a few E-Cats from Leonardo Corporation to supply heat to start
off the process, instead of using natural gas.
Regardless as to
the cost of this technology, I like the idea of removing plastic from
landfills. I think it would be great if we could combine robotics
technology with free energy technologies, and sort all the different
recyclable materials -- metal, glass, plastic, etc. If free energy
technologies proliferate and keep civilization advancing (instead of
crashing), I'm sure that this will take place.
With billions of
people on this planet, we need to learn to start doing something with
the waste we do not recycle, other than burying it or burning it. Now we
have an answer about what to do with the plastic waste we produce.
# # #
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See alsoResources at PESWiki.com | | Page composed by Sterling D. Allan Feb. 10, 2011
Last updated December 13, 2011
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