Machine that converts plastic waste into oil

So you have to use electricity to convert the plastic back to oil (I assume basically by heating the plastics). How does this reduce CO2 emissions if the electricity comes from a coal fired power station? (such as ~50% of the worlds electricity currently does). And then the recovered oil gets used as petrol/diesel in cars which is unrecoverable.
 
Didn't realise 1kg of plastic contained 1 litre of oil. That's quite a lot.

If this wasn't cost effective when crude oil hit $140 a barrel, I can't see it being a smart move now. But interesting to see that recycling plastic one day could actually make a lot of money.

Obviously, this is if renewable/nuclear energy combined with a cost effective transport medium don't temper oil price rises.
 
A good invention.

Think of how much plastic is produced that we can't recycle and how much plastic is in landfill that could be processed now with this machine. Turning it back into oil might mean we could then re-use it to produce plastic (or anything else) rather than burning it as a fossil fuel.

Although to make sure it is good for the environment it will have be powered with something 'green'.
 
So basicaly he just cracks the plastic back into oil which can then be further cracked into it's usual products? Seems way too easy for it never have been done on a large scale before?
 
Dano said:
So basicaly he just cracks the plastic back into oil which can then be further cracked into it's usual products? Seems way too easy for it never have been done on a large scale before?
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This could definitely be done before. But like I said, if it wasn't done when crude oil was $140 a barrel, it's not going to be done now.
 
HE uses loads of different types of plastic and it all produces the same "liquid" hmm interesting, now he needs to invent unlimited free power, oh hang on then why bother with oil ?
 
Efour2 said:
HE uses loads of different types of plastic and it all produces the same "liquid" hmm interesting, now he needs to invent unlimited free power, oh hang on then why bother with oil ?
Click to expand...

or it ill be used to remake plastics :p
 
Not really an "invention" per se - as with most things, it's a known chemical process that has been used and studied in industry for many years. Sort of like Fischer-Tropsch, which is suddenly gaining momentum for being able to convert CO2 into hydrocarbons and diesel - seems novel at first but it's been around since the 1920s.

Reason it's not done on a large scale now is simply cost-effectiveness - it's not an economically viable way of making plastic. At the end of a day, plastics businesses are businesses with competition and a promise to the shareholders - if it is much more cost effective to simply produce plastic from refined crude, then that will be the main process used to generate the product.
 
I think this is likely to suffer from the same problems as burning plastics for direct energy recovery. A lot of plastics contain heavy metals which are fine in the plastic but when you burn them are released into the air. PVC is one of the worst offenders, unfortunate for fetishists.

My opinion is educating designers to make more appropriate material choices when designing products would be more beneficial. Less environmental impact, positive social impact through an improved product and no adverse economic impact :)
 
all very interesting but this was never a problem - its the energy required that is the problem and until we have unlimited cheap electricity this will never be worth doing.
 
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