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Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

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Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#191

Post by csours »

ansible wrote: post #185
csours wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like the "water carburetor" and other miracles that never materialized, the problem is that the alternative is cheaper and simpler (which means cheaper). It doesn't sound expensive to add water injection to an internal combustion engine, until you have to make it work in production, with end users. YOU can make it work, because you are motivated, but what about the guy who buys it because it's cool and then forg…

> It doesn't sound expensive to add water injection to an internal combustion engine, until you have to make it work in production, with end users. Water / methanol injection was commonly used on various piston engine aircraft in the 1940's. It had several benefits, cooling the input air, preventing pre-detonation at high compression (due to lower octane fuel in some cases), lowering the combustion temperature, and s…

It was also available on early jet aircraft (and may still be used by some). Here's an interesting discussion: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/36185/how-does-...

Some people do modify their vehicles for water injection, and at least one recent production car has it: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15340747/new-porsche-911-...

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#192

Post by kulahan »

elromulous wrote: post #131
Laaas wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you can find an economical way to recycle plastic, it would be an insanely lucrative business opportunity. It has nothing to do with their views on the environment.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#193

Post by colordrops »

csours wrote: post #164
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…

Just like the "water carburetor" and other miracles that never materialized, the problem is that the alternative is cheaper and simpler (which means cheaper). It doesn't sound expensive to add water injection to an internal combustion engine, until you have to make it work in production, with end users. YOU can make it work, because you are motivated, but what about the guy who buys it because it's cool and then forg…

It's only cheaper because externalities are ignored. If we had proper legislation that took environmental externalities into account, it might not be cheaper anymore.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#194

Post by hinkley »

HPsquared wrote: post #139
Xylakant wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Michelin had a tire formula a few years ago that was augmented with natural hydrocarbons. They claimed that it gave the tire better performance at 50% tread wear as well. But I found out recently they don’t sell the model I bought anymore so I’m not sure if the expectations matched the projections or what happened.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#195

Post by hinkley »

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…

We should worry about the global phenomenon of microplastics for sure, but most of what’s in my yard came from litter or from the dryer vent.

Also they used to use more natural fibers and now it’s almost all blends, except some of the work clothes.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#196

Post by killjoywashere »

8note wrote: post #190
csours wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you wanted to burn plastic for energy, you can already do it at a electrical generation plant. You have to put more energy in to get oil out. Um. And climate change.

Burning plastic however, has high temperature requirements to avoid giving off toxic fumes in the smoke, which I think you would reduce by doing a conversion to oil first.

Some of it doesn’t even burn: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-india-plastic-recycl...

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#197

Post by hinkley »

Retric wrote: post #161
kraquepype wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would think air (line) drying would be better in terms of microplastics, since there is no tumbling. Would it be safe to say that (mostly) frictionless line drying would shed fewer particles than tumble drying?

The dryer collects already loose or broken fibers in the lint trap for disposal. Air drying doesn’t which means those large broken fibers containing several orders of more magnitude more plastic than might escape from a dryer end up in the environment. This is why new clothes result in dramatically more lint than old clothes by weight.

The dryer abrades the fabric. If you have a delicate or dear piece of clothing they always advise that you air dry it as the fabric will last longer. Those delicate bags for the washing machine are substantially about limiting abrasion from rougher clothing, and also about not accidentally running them through the dryer by tucking inside or clinging to something else.

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#198

Post by numlocked »

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…

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is: https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_...

Edit: more context: the “inventor” is Frank Pringle who appears to have invented a number of too-good-to-be-true gizmos, including one for weight loss.

Edit 2: also he claimed to cure cancer with microwaves (the same year as the oil producing microwaves): https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/-b-global-resource...

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#199

Post by Reason077 »

8note wrote: post #190
csours wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you wanted to burn plastic for energy, you can already do it at a electrical generation plant. You have to put more energy in to get oil out. Um. And climate change.

Burning plastic however, has high temperature requirements to avoid giving off toxic fumes in the smoke, which I think you would reduce by doing a conversion to oil first.

Waste-to-energy plants are designed to reach those high temperatures, amongst other measures, to minimise and prevent toxic emissions.

They still produce a lot of CO2, though: plastic is still a fossil fuel. From a climate perspective, we’d be better to bury the stuff in the ground than to burn it. And ideally, we’d just produce a lot less plastic in the first place!

Re: Plastic to Oil – Produces 80% Oil

#200

Post by [deleted] »

jhoechtl wrote: post #104
elil17 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

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