Converting Honest to Goodness Solid Waste to Methane. Been there and done that-in the 70s. Pyrolysis of waste. Been there and done that too. Both of those were large scale designs, not for use in our homes.
My hat’s off to Akinori Ito. This Japanese inventor has a first generation device that converts our plastic waste to petrol. At our homes. The major problem now is that the price for the device is about $ 10K. That will come down with time- if he can last that long.
His device is based upon the knowledge that plastic bags and the like are derived from oil- and that means we should be able to return the bags to their original state. His unit heats up the plastic, containing all the vapors and then condenses them in pipes and heat exchangers (water-cooled). The oil is usable in stoves and generators. With a second processor (another device), the crude oil can be refined into gasoline.
To convert 1 kg of plastic waste into about a liter of crude oil (75 to 85% conversion rates are being achieved now), the system needs about 1 kW of power. That means the operating costs are about 20 cents per liter of oil.
Don’t get me wrong. Akinori Ito isn’t the first person to do this. Envion is running a small pilot plant in Montgomery County (metro DC), converting 10,000 tons (90000 kg) annually for about a year now. This process yields about ½ a liter of crude oil from a kg of plastic waste.
Mr. Ito’s applied for a patent on his device. And, his device is not only smaller, but may be more efficient at the plastic’s conversion. It’s a little hard to tell since the Envion process is supposed to handle all plastics. Ito’s process, marketed by his firm, Blest Corporation, only converts polypropylene, polyethylene, and polystyrene- and, all the plastic must be cleaned prior to conversion.
For the “green” freaks out there, please notice that since we are converting a plastic (organic carbon) waste to crude oil (organic carbon), there should be no carbon dioxide emissions issues arising from using his product. In addition, both Envion’s and Blest’s processes require the limitation/elimination of oxygen contamination for optimal results, which means the formation of CO2 is not favored (nor is CO produced).
