I don’t think this has already been posted.

Pretty interesting pyrolysis method to make gas from waste plastic. Believe the guy is near Atlanta.

Interesting guy. He thought he was in danger of being killed at one point, but I believe it turned out he just temporarily dropped off social media. His mother later confirmed he was OK.

As far as the Plastoline, I've read that the pyrolytic process consumes more energy to produce than it yields. Plus results in more toxic by-products than gasoline.

But gotta admire his enthusiasm. No formal engineering or scientific backround.

Pyrolysis, the primary method for this conversion, has been used in various industrial applications since the 1970s.

Since Most plastic is made from fossil fuels, primarily crude oil and natural gas. These materials are processed to create the building blocks of plastic through a method called cracking.

He had a video where he fired up a scat pack Dodge.

Leaded or unleaded?

He's burning wood to fuel the reaction so its not free fuel. Its expending more energy than the process creates.

I like his initiative and hunger for knowledge, but if I were a betting man I'd bet on companies who employ both PhDs chemists and process engineers as wells as routinely partner with universities to solve the plastic recycling issue.

Legislatively (e.g. EU), there are some proposed regulations to make the OEM responsible for cradle to grave lifecycle of materials. Will they make the manufacturer (e.g. Honda) responsible for the plastics in their vehicles or will they make the sub-suppliers responsible (e.g. plastics supplier)? To my knowledge, that is undecided.

Both chemical companies and Integrated Oil and Gas (i.e. companies that explore, produce, refine, make chemicals, make plastics, etc) has on-going research on advanced recycling of plastics for items that cannot be mechanically recycled. I only Googled 4 large companies and got a hit on all 4:

ChevronPhillips

Dow

ExxonMobil

Total Energy

I am not personally involved in advanced plastics recycling so the above is just alphabetical order and I have zero knowledge on who is further ahead.

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Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

quote:

Originally posted by rainman64:
He had a video where he fired up a scat pack Dodge.

I agree with the Hodge Twins except on one point "he needs to hire some bodyguards." He doesn't need bodyguards to protect himself from oil & gas industry (perhaps to protect himself from hood rats who'd kidnap him), but instead he needs to hire a safety professional before he sets himself on fire.

Could this Plastoline be used in place of Ethanol?

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
Could this Plastoline be used in place of Ethanol?

Doubtful. Ethanol is used as an oxygenate (i.e. cleaner burning fuel additive).

Given that they said the "plastoline" stunk I'm doubting that it's cleaner burning.

I seem to remember seeing that they are having more success using microbes to convert plastic to fuel. Virtual no emission.

In all fairness, this is more addressing the environment than the energy crisis. A way of reducing the plastic clutter that is choking the landfills and oceans, even at an overall expense to society.

Even current recycling is a cost center. It's usually much cheaper to make stuff from scratch than recycle existing. But it helps the environ.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
In all fairness, this is more addressing the environment than the energy crisis. A way of reducing the plastic clutter that is choking the landfills and oceans, even at an overall expense to society.

Even current recycling is a cost center. It's usually much cheaper to make stuff from scratch than recycle existing. But it helps the environ.

Agreed. Strictly as a fuel it's terribly inefficient and wasteful. But plastic waste is a huge problem, and at some point we're going to have to do something about it.