Plastics to Oil: The New Energy

Plastics to Oil: The New Energy

Plastics are already widely recycled to create new products ranging from playgrounds to carpets and clothes, but the latest recycling trend is to turn plastic waste into synthetic crude oil.

How can plastic become oil? People often forget that in the United States most plastic is derived from natural gas.  Plastics, natural gas, and petroleum are all based on carbon molecules. Using pressure, heat and proprietary processes, plastic polymers can be “depolymerized” or broken back down into their original components. The process is highly innovative, yet relatively simple. In one process, on average, eight pounds of plastic waste will create one gallon of synthetic crude oil, which can be used to produce gasoline or diesel fuel.

Some scientists think that if waste-to-fuel goes mainstream, people may start mining landfills! Much of the plastic that we put in recycling bins including for example margarine tubs and plastic cups may also become fuel in the future.

Already several plastic waste-to-fuel plants are operational in Asia and Australia and there is strong interest in the technology in Europe. Recently Envion, a Washington D.C.-based company, announced the opening of a facility that brings this technology to the U.S.

Envion introduced its first market-ready commercial unit at a demonstration held at the Montgomery County Solid Waste Transfer Station in Derwood, Maryland in September. The Envion Oil Generator(TM) uses a closed loop, catalyst-free system to take plastic and convert it into oil. The plant can process up to 10,000 tons of plastic waste annually, generating as much as 50,000 barrels of oil.