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Creating Value by Turning Waste Plastic into Oil Refining

Recycling and using biodegradable waste are the most common ways to deal with the problem of waste plastics. Except for them, turning it into fuel oil can be another way. 

Turning waste plastic into oil refining sounds miraculous, but this is neither a wild dream nor a new technique. It has been a feasible technology since many years ago. The key to its mass application is whether it can produce high-quality fuel oil at a low cost. If the quality is poor and profits are low, it will be difficult to commercialize.

In recent years, this technology has become more mature. Around 20 tonnes of waste plastic can be made into 17 kilolitres of light oil through catalytic cracking, fractionation, filtration and other procedures. The oil has low sulfur content and can reach the diesel standard. Except about 80~85% can be converted into fuel oil, the remaining 5% is natural gas, and 10% is carbon black.

Including unsorted plastics in recycled items helps to increase the recycling rate

Currently, there are not much plastic recycling projects. Whether it is PP, PE, PET bottles, Styrofoam etc., all of them must undergo strict plastic classification before processing. Therefore, recycling items such as unclassified, composite materials, and Styrofoam can only be regarded as garbage. The advantage of “Plastic Cracking and Refining” is that it can process unclassified, special category or composite plastics. It can solve the problem under the current plastic recycling.

With this technology, all kinds of waste plastics can be recycled. Hematoma Island in Japan used a similar method to deal with a large amount of Styrofoam waste. After the Styrofoam oil refinery was set up on the island, the shipping cost of Styrofoam was saved, the fuel oil produced was used locally, and the construction cost was recovered within two years. 

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