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Turn Plastic into Oil

RAM Patriot

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We should be implementing this technology in the states.

Instead of sending our recycled plastic to China.

 

John Brereton

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Too costly to gain little value. The oil generated is too low of a quality to be useful.

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RAM Patriot

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Too costly to gain little value. The oil generated is too low of a quality to be useful.

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I doubt you even clicked on the link.

A truly versatile platform proven to process a wide variety of feedstocks
  • A highly controllable process that delivers a consistent and high quality oil
  • No need to dry biomass feedstock prior to processing
  • No need to add external hydrogen (significantly reduces cost of capital and production)
  • Inexpensive catalysts used
  • The Cat-HTR™ process is a net producer of water – it utilizes the water within the feedstock
The cost is minimal. The plastic is already above ground and has been sorted in most cases.
 

John Brereton

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Define high quality of oil. Oil for cooking, cooling, lubrication, use in processing for other products? How pure is it?

I didn't read that article but I have read articles in the past about similar equipment advertising how you can take plastic trash, essentially burn it, and extract an oil. But as I recall (and it has been some years) the by-product oil was of such a low molecular weight that it wasn't attractive for a capital investor. Maybe technology changed since then but I'm pretty sure plastic bottle technology hasn't.

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Trooper4

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I personally did not see any data for the amount of product recovered per ton, nor the quality om product returned. Plastic is made from the byproducts/waste of refining crude oil. If the oil recovered from the plastic recycling process were viable as a fuel source, then why not recover it in the initial refining process instead if at time of recycle. Wouldn't it be cheaper and more efficient to refine the product at the beginning rather than at the end of its life cycle?
 

RAM Patriot

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I personally did not see any data for the amount of product recovered per ton, nor the quality om product returned. Plastic is made from the byproducts/waste of refining crude oil. If the oil recovered from the plastic recycling process were viable as a fuel source, then why not recover it in the initial refining process instead if at time of recycle. Wouldn't it be cheaper and more efficient to refine the product at the beginning rather than at the end of its life cycle?
I did not see any data on how much oil per ton of plastic either.

But I'm sure it would be more economical than throwing in a landfill or the ocean.

As for plastic being a by-product of the oil refining process; that is not what I have found. It is actually between Petrol and Kerosene which is very high in the column not a by-product.
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The Refining process transforms crude oil into different petroleum products – these are converted to yield useful chemicals including “monomers” (a molecule that is the basic building blocks of polymers).

In the refining process, crude oil is heated in a furnace, which is then sent to the distillation unit, where heavy crude oil separates into lighter components called fractions.

One of these, called Naphtha, it is the crucial compound to make a large amount of plastic. However, there are other means, such as using gas.

fractional_distillation_polymers.png
(Pictorial representation of the Fractional Distillation Process)
 

John Brereton

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I'd like to see how they scrub the fumes from processing. Maybe it's by simply using a carbon filter or recycled into the heat and burned over and over. It would be interesting to see it work and learn what the output was.

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RAM Patriot

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Actually, land fills when produced properly, produce quite a bit of natural gas.
You are correct landfills are a great resource for natural gas but in a capped landfill (the most common type of landfill in the US), most plastics will remain stable and not be a significant contributor to methane emissions as far as we know.
 

Trooper4

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You are correct landfills are a great resource for natural gas but in a capped landfill (the most common type of landfill in the US), most plastics will remain stable and not be a significant contributor to methane emissions as far as we know.
Guess we will have to wait a few thousand years to find out. ;-)
 

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