Turn those blister packs into fuel with the Envion oil generator
It's no secret that we generate a phenomenal amount of garbage, especially here in the United States, and a lot of that trash consists of plastics. Plastics hit us in a number of ways. Most plastics are are produced, at least in part, from petroleum and the plastics don't decompose when put it in the ground. Now, there may finally be a solution that addresses both sides of that equation (one that doesn't consider the idea of using less plastic).
Envion has created an oil generator that consumes plastics and cracks them in a vacuum to produce light and medium oils. The process is claimed to be energy positive, with more energy available in the oil produced than it takes to crack the plastics. According to Envion, it costs about $10/barrel to generate the oil, considerably less than the current world price of crude.
A commercial unit can process 10,000 tons of plastic per year into 30,000-50,000 barrels of oil. A demonstrator is currently running at the Montgomery County Solid Waste Transfer Station in Derwood, Maryland.
[Source: PureGreenCars]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jake 6:12PM (11/03/2009)
30-50k barrels a year seems like very little impact when we use ~20 million barrels a day.
Better than throwing the plastic in the landfill I suppose (assuming the waste products / pollution out of this process isn't worse).
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wincros 6:15PM (11/03/2009)
Wow, that sounds great. They should put them on ships and operate on that floating plastic floe the size of Texas in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
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Sean C 2:03AM (11/04/2009)
Believe it or not I've had that exact idea for quite some time. It could be 'mined' by filter feeding ships that refine it into oil and transfer it to tankers.
Dave 7:20PM (11/03/2009)
10,000 tons = 20,000,000 lbs
40,000 barrels ~ 11,760,000 lbs
Not bad. About 59% less goes to the landfill.
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dwarg 7:35PM (11/03/2009)
So much for my new line of thinking. I had started to tell people to use all the plastic bags they could in the name of environmental friendliness.
Think about it this way. The cause of global warming is that we are burning all the carbon that had been taken out of the atmosphere by ancient plants and safely buried under the ground in a non-gaseous form. As opposed to plastic where we are taking that carbon and converting it to a solid form for practical use and eventual disposal... get this, BACK UNDERGROUND.
When you think of it that way it makes plastic the most successful carbon sequestration program in history, by far. Further, plastic sitting underground is far less volatile than oil so it's even a little safer.
But now we've found a way to convert it to burn it and release more carbon into the atmosphere. Great. Just great.
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wincros 2:24AM (11/04/2009)
Good point, but there is nothing that says it cannot be made into new plastics using it over and over.
Jimbo 8:29AM (11/04/2009)
Your logic is flawed. Yes, burying plastic bags sequesters some carbon, but that is more than offset by the increased demand for fossil fuels to make those bags. On top of that, the fossil fuels need to be refined, which produces other forms of waste. Wouldn't it be better to recycle or reprocess the plastic, like this process, than to pull more oil out of the ground?
dwarg 1:05PM (11/04/2009)
Both good points.
wincros, I don't know if the hydrocarbons created by this process are of the kind that could be made back into plastic, but it's possible.
As for the efficiency of using plastic disposal as a carbon sequestration program, I'm certain Jimbo is right that it isn't. I'm just saying from a strictly CO2 level, burning oil is more destructive than making it into plastic items that are used and then discarded. It's not a good carbon sequestration program, but it's the only one we've got for putting those ancient carbon atoms back underground and not back into the atmosphere.
dwarg 1:11PM (11/04/2009)
Also, I should mention that I really liked the idea of putting one, or more, of these out in the dead zones in the pacific where the plastics are accumulating, if this could make that a cash positive endeavor it would do a lot of good to our oceans.
Anyone that has 7 minutes to spare should watch this video that shows the size of the problem. It's bigger than I ever would have imagined
http://www.ted.com/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_plastic.html
Stan Peterson 2:20PM (11/04/2009)
Yes. Isn't it wonderful that we responsible and civilized Men, are re-releasing into the available environment, more plant nourishment for all the stunted life of the Plant Kingdom. And we're are doing this almost for free, without charging anyone for all the free plant nourishment and fertilizer.
By thus reversing the incipient CO2 dearth, plant catastrophe that the plants had created for themselves, most of Mankind is helping "Green" the planet. Reversing the inadvertent carbon sequestration that the plants had undertaken, is a truly worthwhile and almost sacred undertaking.
Some estimates are the Earth has greened by 30% or more, in the last half of the 20th century and since to date. Westernized Mankind is certainly a fine contributor to the environment, that every plant species in the World can feel good about.
But alas; All is not well. Some E-V-I-L Men are trying to thwart these fine environmental efforts with their foolish religious impulsive wishes, for maintaining the Carbon sequestration! These Selfish Druids somehow think that their great phony, "God of the rocks", wishes the carbon to remain sequestered and even to add to the buried carbon sacrifices. Thankfully these fools, once ascendant, are being exposed for the ulterior motives on which they act, and are becoming objects of ridicule as they rightfully deserve.
buildaroo 10:30PM (11/03/2009)
very cool! At this year's West Coast Green 2009 convention in SF (just a few weeks ago), we did a video interview of a company from Japan called Blest Company that does a very similar thing... it looks like a similar technology, but theirs is in full production and in use in Japanese factories already...
http://buildaroo.com/news/article/a-machine-that-recycles-plastic-into-oil-will-this-become-a-new-solution-to-our-energy-crisis/
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Laurens 4:53AM (11/04/2009)
If you use waste to replace fossil fuels in electricity plants, you are very environmentally friendly. The plastic packaging protects food from deteriorating. After disposal it burns very clean. Unless you grow your own crop, in the back garden, that is...
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Carney 9:36AM (11/04/2009)
This has been possible with methanol for a long time, even with styrofoam.
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