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Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

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Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#131

Post by elromulous »

Laaas wrote: post #123
generalizations wrote: post #109

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 t…

I'm surprised that people didn't replicate his work in countries that don't respect Western patents.

Those countries probably don't care about recycling.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#133

Post by Retric »

hinkley wrote: post #103
soperj wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

How exactly do materials go from dryer lint to trash bag and then somehow end up in the ocean?

I can see a washing machine sending micro plastics down the drain resulting in some small percentage of those ending up in the ocean. Assuming some failure where raw sewage was dumped into a river or ocean.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#134

Post by koheripbal »

Xylakant wrote: post #77
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.

we always could - burning the plastic always was an option, and effectively happens in a lot of places (incinerator). Recycling into oil would give us the option to use it as input to either new plastic or other hydrocarbon based products. Now, whether this works as advertised is an open question.

This is a very mature industry. I'm skeptical it's economical at all.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#135

Post by pfdietz »

quaintdev wrote: post #2

So what is wrong with this? I am assuming it only takes soft plastic but still why we don't see widespread use of it.

The very small scale ensures it isn't economical.

If thermal decomposition of plastic is to be worthwhile, it would be on the scale of oil refineries (which it would likely resemble.)

It might be worthwhile to separate plastics now, not for conversion now, but to stockpile for later processing by this or other means. Just put the stuff in plastics-only landfills designed to ease later mining. Fixed carbon will be more valuable after fossil fuel use ends.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#136

Post by pfdietz »

stonemetal12 wrote: post #21
actionfromafar wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But of what use is that mystery oil? All current petroluem products are highly quality controlled, both for lubrication and use in engines. You didn't get rid of the plastic, you converted it into a liquid which you must now dispose of safely. The only upside I see is that the plastic won't litter and turn into micro plastics in the ocean, but since it's already collected, then burn in a central plant ASAP IMHO.

Last I checked oil was the primary ingredient in making plastic. This could be a way to recycle plastic that is not recyclable by normal means.

Much of the feedstock for plastic is from natural gas, not from oil. Fracked gas in particular has a lot of ethane, which is converted to ethylene and then to polyethylene. The rise of fracked gas in the US caused PE production to move here.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#137

Post by pipeline_peak »

It would be nice if they listed safe use cases for oil from squished plastic…

I couldn’t imagine you want this reaching smoke point.

BRB drinking water derived from urine to wash down the bug protein bars I ate earlier. I’ll be sure to wipe later with 2 square inches of newspaper that I’ll later dispose in my apartment’s communal compost heap…protect the planet!

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#138

Post by Xylakant »

koheripbal wrote: post #134
Xylakant wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we always could - burning the plastic always was an option, and effectively happens in a lot of places (incinerator). Recycling into oil would give us the option to use it as input to either new plastic or other hydrocarbon based products. Now, whether this works as advertised is an open question.

This is a very mature industry. I'm skeptical it's economical at all.

It's also an area where the economics are changing - renewable energy is cheap during peak hours. So if you can build a process that can essentially soak up that energy you could try and do arbitrage. Whether that's enough to make that economically viable depends on the capital investment required, but it's at least possible in the near future.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#139

Post by HPsquared »

Xylakant wrote: post #112
hinkley wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

if you're worried about microplastics from drying your patagonia fleece in the dryer, worry about other things first. Car tires get ground up into microplastic and estimates range between 10 and 28% of the total microplastic pollution in the oceans [1]. And that's not surprising - the weight loss of a single tire over its lifetime likely exceeds the entire weight of your fleece jacket. Drive less car miles before wor…

For tires, is anyone working on biodegradable or otherwise eco-friendly tire materials? Something that is biocompatible. Although you don't want tires breaking down and causing accidents... Tires have a lot of conflicting design requirements.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#140

Post by dylan604 »

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.

So when there's unrest in the middle east, does the price of this converted oil suddenly spike as well? /s
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