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Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

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Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#101

Post by actionfromafar »

ozim wrote: post #81
actionfromafar wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you absolutely can, especially in an old diesel engine, they can run on all kinds of oil. But the engine might not fare well, depending on the properties of the oil, and the exhaust might contain "interesting" stuff like dioxins, depending on what was in the mystery plastic to begin with.

I would say if this could be done by some utility company, that company could have diesel engines to generate power from that oil which could have filters and all that stuff. I assume it still could be profitable because people who want to get rid of plastic waste would still have to pay. Getting excess power from grid is also something one would get paid for. Then turning on generators when grid needs power to get p…

Meanwhile, the power company in this city burns plastic (and all kinds of waste) in their co-generation plant and gets electricity and residential heating.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#102

Post by jhoechtl »

naravara wrote: post #29
fnordpiglet wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than if you have a Mr Fusion you can’t run a car off of solid plastics. But, I assume some additional steps are required to make it usable. The site doesn’t detail the possible uses of the the oil, but generally liquids and solids can be used in different situations. The oil could also be used as lubricant rather than an energy source.

I don't know if most households have enough use for lubricants to be able to consume a quantity equivalent to 80% of the volume of plastics they're disposing of. My door hinges and bike-chains can only be so smooth. Even if it was converting it into usable motor-oil (which I doubt it is) I don't think I could consume that much. I suppose if it's usable for a kerosine type of lamp maybe, but is it pure enough to not p…

Many people still have ICE cars, you left that intentionally out?

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#103

Post by hinkley »

soperj wrote: post #98
gmuslera wrote: post #73

Great, now instead of turning the 95% of all extracted oil into greenhouse gases, we now can turn the 99+%. That is efficiency.

The alternative is polluting the entire planet with micro-plastics for a 5% savings in greenhouse gasses.

This does nothing to prevent micro plastics.

Micro plastics are plastics that have escaped into the environment, which by definitions means we are no longer collecting them for disposal or recycling.

All this does is keep some recycling programs from shutting down, and most of those are collecting bulk #1 and #2 which as far as I’m aware are not the major source of micro plastic pollution.

Patagonia has a fucked up plan of using recycled polyester in everything lately and I don’t see how nobody is noticing that a major source of urban micro plastics is going to be coming from dryer lint. Which means synthetics and dryers are a bad combo.

I line dry all my exercise clothes, but most people don’t.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#104

Post by jhoechtl »

elil17 wrote: post #69
osigurdson wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t believe plastic burning is a widespread energy source.

It happens in waste-to-energy power plants (a.k.a garbage power plants). They can be a great way to get rid of waste but they require a lot of filtering of the exhaust to be safe. Adequate filtering is universal in some countries (like Sweden). In the USA, waste-to-energy plants frequently have inadequate filtering, which can make them dirtier than coal plants.

> In the USA, waste-to-energy plants frequently have inadequate filtering, which can make them dirtier than coal plants.

Source? With EPA being so rigid about diesel cars it would doubt that. Unless the whole regulation was about keeping german car manufacturers in cheque...

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#106

Post by settrans »

gmuslera wrote: post #73

Great, now instead of turning the 95% of all extracted oil into greenhouse gases, we now can turn the 99+%. That is efficiency.

Only if it increases demand for oil.

Realistically, this oil would replace oil that would otherwise have to be pumped from the ground.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#107

Post by eloff »

ozim wrote: post #81
actionfromafar wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you absolutely can, especially in an old diesel engine, they can run on all kinds of oil. But the engine might not fare well, depending on the properties of the oil, and the exhaust might contain "interesting" stuff like dioxins, depending on what was in the mystery plastic to begin with.

I would say if this could be done by some utility company, that company could have diesel engines to generate power from that oil which could have filters and all that stuff. I assume it still could be profitable because people who want to get rid of plastic waste would still have to pay. Getting excess power from grid is also something one would get paid for. Then turning on generators when grid needs power to get p…

If you’re going to burn it for electricity in a stationary location, skip the middle man and burn the waste itself.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#108

Post by jnovek »

flavius29663 wrote: post #88
AuthorizedCust wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the USA, landfill space concerns are based on a hoax. Landfill space is a function of landfill development, and there’s no shortage of spaces to create landfills.

I am not talking about running out of space in general. I am talking about taking a hill covered with trees or farms, and turning it into a hill of garbage. Surely you can see why I would prefer a natural hill? If you can burn it, there is no point in burring it. We're still taking a lot of stuff from underground and burn it for energy, why not burn the stuff we already have above ground?

Landfills amortize the carbon emissions. Keeping the plastic's carbon temporarily sequestered in a landfill puts it somewhere other than the atmosphere. Eventually we'll have to do something with all that carbon, but we're better off burying it until we get a better handle on emissions in general.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#109

Post by generalizations »

I remember nearly two decades ago a PopSci article about some guy who figured out how to use microwaves to convert plastic (any hydrocarbon) into oil and natural gas. More than enough to break even. He was converting tires and waste plastic.

Nothing ever came of it - IIRC, ownership disputes with the partner, and eventually the patent got purchased by some random company and blackholed.

Edit: found a source. Better than popsci. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12141-giant-microwave...

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#110

Post by lesuorac »

settrans wrote: post #106
gmuslera wrote: post #73

Great, now instead of turning the 95% of all extracted oil into greenhouse gases, we now can turn the 99+%. That is efficiency.

Only if it increases demand for oil. Realistically, this oil would replace oil that would otherwise have to be pumped from the ground.

Ah yes, just like how fracking reduced the other methods of drilling oil from the ground.
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