Take plastic out of landfills by turning it into oil

Envion has created a process that takes plastic and turns into oil.  Since plastic is made from oil, the process basically completes the circle by turning the plastic back into its basic component.

Envion has developed a proprietary system  that takes all plastics, except those with the number “1” on the bottom, and “produce[es] three to five barrels of refined petroleum product per ton of plastic waste.”  Since the process is scalable, adding another unit, doubles the amount of plastic that can be processed and oil produced.

The actual system involves the companies trade marked Oil Generator.  Shredded plastic is fed into one end of the Oil Generator and oil comes out the other.  Eighty two percent of the plastic is turned into liquid oil and the rest becomes sludge.  The sludge from the process is cleaned out "two to four times a year."  The sludge is then used as a fuel source for the generator.

The Oil Generator works by heating up the plastic in such a way as to release the hydrocarbons without using a catalyst.  This is done by using "heating elements that give off infrared energy" and "controlling the amount of oxygen". 

Envion says that one of its units can process 10,000 tons of plastic annually.  According to the EPA:

• In 2007, the United States generated almost 14 million tons of plastics in the MSW stream as containers and packaging, almost 7 million tons as nondurable goods, and about 10 million tons as durable goods.
• The total amount of plastics in MSW—almost 31 million tons—represented 12.1 percent of total MSW generation in 2007.
• The amount of plastics generation in MSW has increased from less than 1 percent in 1960 to 12.1 percent in 2007.
• Plastics are a rapidly growing segment of the MSW stream. The largest category of plastics are found in containers and packaging (e.g., soft drink bottles, lids, shampoo bottles), but they also are found in durable (e.g., appliances, furniture) and nondurable goods (e.g., diapers, trash bags, cups and utensils, medical devices).

That’s only the plastic refuse created in the United States.  World wide it’s even worse.

There is a floating garbage dump in the North Pacific that contains four million tons of plastic and is twice the size of Texas.  As the plastic breaks down toxic chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA) and PS oligomer are released into the ocean.

Four million tons of plastic could be turned into 12 – 20 million barrels of oil.  The United States imports over 520 million barrels of oil a year.  Those four million tons of plastic in the ocean would take care of about half a months worth of imported oil.  If all of the plastic that winds up on sidewalks, in streams and landfills were sent through Envion’s process, we could significantly cut down on our oil imports while cleaning up our land and oceans.

• 

Related posts:

1. The environment lost a champion with the death of Senator Edward Kennedy
2. The 2009 Global Cleantech 100 list is here