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Turning Plastic to Oil, U.K. Startup Sees Money in Saving Oceans

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Re: Turning Plastic to Oil, U.K. Startup Sees Money in Saving Oceans

#11

Post by Double_a_92 »

aaron695 wrote: post #8
djsumdog wrote: post #2

I feel like I see one of these every few years. I remember the Japanese one from a while back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGGabrorRS8 The article does mention this particular technique tries to get bigger yields and remove the need of sorting that other methods require. If it works as they claim, I could see it working for mining landfills, but when it comes to plastic patches in the ocean, I have trouble seeing…

> I have trouble seeing a ship being able to recover enough plastic to be greater than its fuel use skimming through it. I don't think this would be the idea. I think by making it worth money to recycle the plastic it doesn't get into the oceans. It's certainly not worthwhile trying to getting the existing plastic out of the oceans, this has been well covered by engineers.

You don't even have to recycle it. Burning it for heat energy is enough. Most plastic only produces water and co2 when burned...

Re: Turning Plastic to Oil, U.K. Startup Sees Money in Saving Oceans

#12

Post by ReligiousFlames »

In VICE HBO Season 5 Ep 7 "Plastic Oceans," Jeanette Garcia, a PhD polymer science researcher at IBM's Almaden Bernal facility in San Jose, discussed chemical recycling of plastic.

http://www.hbo.com/vice/episodes/05/61-life-under-sharia-and...

(PS: I went to a dark matter conference at that enormous facility in the mid-90's and was offered a job but couldn't get a work permit being 15 requiring parental and school approvals. Bernal Road is also an awesome, steep road bike route.)

Re: Turning Plastic to Oil, U.K. Startup Sees Money in Saving Oceans

#13

Post by userbinator »

I can see this working very well for plastics like polyethylene and polypropylene (which fortunately make up the majority of the stuff floating in the oceans) which are essentially long-chain hydrocarbons with nothing but H and C, but I wonder how it would handle fluorinated and chlorinated plastics (PTFE, PVC).

Re: Turning Plastic to Oil, U.K. Startup Sees Money in Saving Oceans

#14

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

Double_a_92 wrote: post #11
aaron695 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have trouble seeing a ship being able to recover enough plastic to be greater than its fuel use skimming through it. I don't think this would be the idea. I think by making it worth money to recycle the plastic it doesn't get into the oceans. It's certainly not worthwhile trying to getting the existing plastic out of the oceans, this has been well covered by engineers.

You don't even have to recycle it. Burning it for heat energy is enough. Most plastic only produces water and co2 when burned...

Are you sure about that? As a younger person I burned a few samples of various things called 'plastic' and the fumes sure smelled like maybe I should be sterile by now.

Re: Turning Plastic to Oil, U.K. Startup Sees Money in Saving Oceans

#16

Post by msl »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #14
Double_a_92 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even have to recycle it. Burning it for heat energy is enough. Most plastic only produces water and co2 when burned...

Are you sure about that? As a younger person I burned a few samples of various things called 'plastic' and the fumes sure smelled like maybe I should be sterile by now.

Plastics tend to consists of carbon and hydrogen chains. See for example polycarbonate [1], polyetene [2] and ABS [3] (contains nitrogen). They might however contain all sorts of additives. In order to produce just water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen the burning must be carefully controlled [4] - in your experiment the burning was probably not complete, which explains the fumes (that might have been carcinogenic [4]).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarbonate

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylonitrile_butadiene_styren...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic#Incineration_of_plasti...

Re: Turning Plastic to Oil, U.K. Startup Sees Money in Saving Oceans

#17

Post by scq »

msl wrote: post #16
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure about that? As a younger person I burned a few samples of various things called 'plastic' and the fumes sure smelled like maybe I should be sterile by now.

Plastics tend to consists of carbon and hydrogen chains. See for example polycarbonate [1], polyetene [2] and ABS [3] (contains nitrogen). They might however contain all sorts of additives. In order to produce just water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen the burning must be carefully controlled [4] - in your experiment the burning was probably not complete, which explains the fumes (that might have been carcinogenic [4]).…

You generally don't want to burn halogenated plastics like PVC though. As I understand it that will release highly toxic dioxins (which cause cancer and birth defects among other things) unless they are incinerated at high temperatures.

Re: Turning Plastic to Oil, U.K. Startup Sees Money in Saving Oceans

#18

Post by pjc50 »

scq wrote: post #17
msl wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plastics tend to consists of carbon and hydrogen chains. See for example polycarbonate [1], polyetene [2] and ABS [3] (contains nitrogen). They might however contain all sorts of additives. In order to produce just water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen the burning must be carefully controlled [4] - in your experiment the burning was probably not complete, which explains the fumes (that might have been carcinogenic [4]).…

You generally don't want to burn halogenated plastics like PVC though. As I understand it that will release highly toxic dioxins (which cause cancer and birth defects among other things) unless they are incinerated at high temperatures.

I don't know why this is downvoted, it's correct - incineration of plastics is needs to be done at high temperatures to avoid this problem.

Re: Turning Plastic to Oil, U.K. Startup Sees Money in Saving Oceans

#19

Post by adrianN »

msl wrote: post #16
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure about that? As a younger person I burned a few samples of various things called 'plastic' and the fumes sure smelled like maybe I should be sterile by now.

Plastics tend to consists of carbon and hydrogen chains. See for example polycarbonate [1], polyetene [2] and ABS [3] (contains nitrogen). They might however contain all sorts of additives. In order to produce just water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen the burning must be carefully controlled [4] - in your experiment the burning was probably not complete, which explains the fumes (that might have been carcinogenic [4]).…

Maybe it was PVC. That releases plenty of nasties when you burn it.

Re: Turning Plastic to Oil, U.K. Startup Sees Money in Saving Oceans

#20

Post by ajdlinux »

There's an Australian company that's trying to build a plastics-to-diesel plant in my city, but is facing a lot of local opposition due to pollution and safety concerns - a government health review panel has basically suspended the project until they can provide more evidence of safety. Will be interesting to watch.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/foy-group-aims-to-p...

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/independent-panel-s...

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