Creating a better future

Plastic-to-Oil Machine

Akinori Ito from Blest Corporation has developed a machine which converts plastic into Oil.

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Comment by Tim Pearce on November 1, 2010 at 4:43pm: I have a few observations.

Firstly the conversion process obviously uses energy. So how much energy is used compared with the energy in the fuel that is produced? (As an aside there are other issues like Can any plastic be used? If so what happens to the undesirable parts like chlorine in PVC which can potentially convert to other nasties like hydrochloric acid or worse, PCBs? I assume this is a 'clean' process.).

I also disagree with the claim that this saves CO2 from entering the atmosphere. It may re-use plastic and prevent it entering landfill or (worse) filling the oceans and rivers but it can't see how it saves CO2. Crude oil is extracted, refined, processed and eventually turned into plastic. The process above takes that plastic converts it back to oil which is burnt producing ... that's right CO2 which enteres the atmosphere just the same as if you burn the crude oil in the first place. Plastic traps the carbon in its structure but converting it to oil and burning it releases that trapped carbon as CO2. Burying the plastic in, say, a mineshaft would do more to reduce CO2 output. That's not to say that this process does not have potential to do good things ... but I do not think reducing CO2 output is one of them.

Comment by Lee Stewart on August 27, 2010 at 10:21am: Wow! This is amazing and has the opportunity to transform communities drowning in plastic waste. This machine turns plastic into a valuable resource.

Comment by Change2 on August 25, 2010 at 11:35am: Could this be a solution to the mountains of plastic waste dumped in landfills across the world every day?