How Waste Plastic is Converted into Fuel

Summary

The video discusses the alarming rise of plastic waste, with over 400 million tons produced annually, half of which is single-use. Only 6% of all plastic has been recycled in the last 70 years. The video highlights a breakthrough in chemical recycling from a Japanese company, using a method called Hiop to convert plastic into high-quality crude oil. This technology is safer and more efficient than existing processes and has the potential to revolutionize plastic waste management, especially in Japan, where plastic consumption is high. The video urges everyone to be conscious of plastic use and recycling efforts.

Takeaways

• 🌍 A million disposable plastic drink bottles are used every minute worldwide.
• 🗑️ Most plastic bottles end up in landfills or oceans, not being recycled.
• 🔄 Only about 6% of all plastic has been recycled in the last 70 years.
• 👟 Recycled plastic bottles are used to make shoes, building materials, and other products.
• 🔬 Pyrolysis is a method to break down plastic waste into oil and gas using intense heat.
• 🇯🇵 Japan has been a leader in developing plastic to oil conversion plants.
• 🏭 Environment Energy is working on a commercial plant using a catalytic cracking method called HiOP.
• 🛢️ HiOP aims to convert 20,000 tons of plastic waste into crude oil annually.
• 🔬 The HiOP process uses catalysts to convert plastic into hydrocarbon gases at lower temperatures compared to pyrolysis.
• ♻️ The goal is to create a circular economy where waste becomes the source of new materials.
• 🚀 HiOP is expected to lead to a shift from conventional thermal recycling to chemical recycling.

Q & A

What is the environmental impact of plastic drink bottles?

Plastic drink bottles contribute to significant plastic waste, with millions of bottles being discarded every minute worldwide. A large portion of these bottles end up in landfills or the oceans, negatively impacting the environment.

How much plastic waste is recycled annually according to the script?

Only about 25% of plastic waste is recycled, while 20% is incinerated and 55% is discarded, according to the script.

What challenges are associated with recycling plastic waste?

One challenge is that only around 6% of all plastic has been recycled in the last 70 years. Additionally, much of the recycling involves downcycling or upcycling rather than turning plastic back into high-quality reusable materials.

What is pyrolysis, and how does it relate to plastic recycling?

Pyrolysis is a process that breaks down plastic waste into oil and gas by applying intense heat of up to 900°C in an oxygen-deprived environment. It aims to convert plastic back to its constituent parts, which can then be reused or burned more efficiently.

What are some challenges faced by plastic-to-oil conversion plants?

In the early 2000s, Japanese firms that attempted to build plastic-to-oil conversion plants faced challenges like fires, industrial accidents, and economic problems, leading to the closure of many plants.

What is the new plastic recycling technology introduced by Environment Energy?

Environment Energy has developed a technology called HIOL, which converts plastic waste into crude oil using a catalytic cracking method. It is expected to be safer, more efficient, and capable of producing higher quality oil compared to pyrolysis.

What are the benefits of the HIOL catalytic cracking method over pyrolysis?

The HIOL method is safer due to a milder reaction process and produces higher-quality oil that is rich in gasoline and diesel. It also has the added benefit of dechlorination, reducing contamination when PVC is present in the plastic waste.

What role do catalysts play in the HIOL plastic recycling process?

Catalysts used in the HIOL process help break plastic waste into smaller molecules, eventually converting them into hydrocarbon gases that are then concentrated into crude oil. These catalysts are similar to those used in petroleum refining.

What is the significance of Japan in the development of plastic recycling technologies?

Japan is pioneering new developments in plastic recycling due to its high consumption of plastics, especially in packaging. With limited natural resources and a strong reliance on imported oil, Japan is leading efforts to develop efficient plastic-to-oil conversion technologies like HIOL.

Why is plastic-to-oil conversion considered important for recycling efforts?

Plastic-to-oil conversion fills a gap in the recycling landscape by allowing heavily contaminated plastics that are hard to recycle mechanically to be converted into usable oil, thereby increasing the amount of plastic waste that can be effectively recycled.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 Plastic Waste Crisis and Recycling Efforts

The paragraph discusses the global issue of plastic waste, highlighting that a million people pick up a disposable plastic drink bottle every minute. It points out that despite efforts to recycle, much of the plastic waste ends up in landfills or oceans. The text provides statistics on plastic production and waste management, revealing that only about 25% of plastic waste is recycled, and a mere 6% of all plastic has been recycled in the past 70 years. It also mentions the transformation of recycled plastics into various products, such as shoes and building materials, and explores the concept of converting plastic back into crude oil through pyrolysis. The paragraph concludes with the introduction of a Japanese company's innovative approach to converting waste into 'vir oil' using a catalytic cracking method called HIOP, which is set to be commercialized in 2025.

05:02

🔬 HIOP: A Breakthrough in Plastic to Oil Conversion

This paragraph delves into the details of the HIOP process, a chemical recycling method that converts plastic waste into high-quality oil. It contrasts this method with pyrolysis, emphasizing the safety and efficiency of HIOP due to its catalytic cracking process. The text outlines the advantages of HIOP, including its safety, high oil yield, simplicity in manufacturing, and low contamination. It describes the operational details of the pilot plant, which processes 120 tons of waste per month and requires catalyst changes every three days. The resultant oil is a mixture containing 50% gasoline and 50% diesel, suitable for various uses including transportation fuel and raw material for plastic production. The paragraph also discusses the potential of HIOP to revolutionize recycling in Japan and globally, given the country's high plastic consumption and limited natural resources.

Keywords

💡Plastic waste

Plastic waste refers to discarded plastic materials, particularly single-use items like disposable bottles. In the video, it highlights the global scale of plastic waste generation, with 400 million tons produced annually. Much of this plastic ends up in landfills or the oceans, contributing to environmental pollution.

💡Recycling

Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into reusable materials. The video contrasts traditional mechanical recycling with emerging chemical recycling techniques, emphasizing the challenges of effectively recycling plastic, as only 25% of plastic waste is recycled, and much of that is downcycled into lower-quality products.

💡Pyrolysis

Pyrolysis is a thermal decomposition process used to break down plastic waste into oil and gas in an oxygen-deprived environment at high temperatures (up to 900°C). The video explains how pyrolysis has been explored as a method for recycling plastic, but with significant challenges related to safety and efficiency in commercial applications.

💡Catalytic cracking

Catalytic cracking is a chemical process used to break down complex hydrocarbons into simpler molecules, typically in petroleum refining. In the video, it is discussed as a key component of the HIRO process for converting plastic into crude oil, offering a safer and more efficient alternative to pyrolysis.

💡Chemical recycling

Chemical recycling refers to methods that break down plastic at a molecular level to create new raw materials. The video introduces the HIRO process as a form of chemical recycling, which aims to improve on traditional recycling by producing higher-quality oil and reducing environmental contamination.

💡Circular economy

A circular economy is an economic model that emphasizes reusing materials to minimize waste. The video presents the HIRO process as a step toward creating a circular economy for plastic, where waste is converted into new raw materials, rather than being discarded or downcycled into low-value products.

💡Single-use plastics

Single-use plastics are items designed to be used once and then discarded, such as disposable bottles and packaging. The video highlights that around half of all plastic produced annually is single-use, contributing significantly to global plastic waste and environmental pollution.

💡Mechanical recycling

Mechanical recycling involves physically reprocessing plastic waste into new materials, often resulting in lower-quality products. The video describes how mechanical recycling is the dominant method in countries like Japan but is limited by the cleanliness of the waste and the reduced quality of the recycled materials.

💡HIRO process

The HIRO process is a catalytic cracking method developed to convert plastic waste into crude oil, which can then be refined into fuel or used to create new plastics. The video describes how this process is a breakthrough in chemical recycling, with advantages like lower contamination, higher safety, and greater efficiency compared to pyrolysis.

💡Plastic-to-oil conversion

Plastic-to-oil conversion refers to the process of breaking down plastic waste into its chemical components to produce crude oil. The video explains how this approach, including methods like pyrolysis and the HIRO process, is being explored as a solution to the plastic waste problem by turning waste into valuable resources.

Highlights

Globally, one million disposable plastic bottles are picked up every minute, contributing to significant waste.

Around 400 million tons of plastic are produced annually, with half designed for single use.

Only 6% of plastic has been recycled in the last 70 years, showing the inefficiency of current recycling methods.

Mechanical recycling processes downcycle plastic into lower-quality products like garden furniture and AstroTurf.

The aim is to shift from mechanical to chemical recycling, converting plastic waste back into crude oil.

Pyrolysis, a process that breaks down plastic into oil and gas using intense heat, is being explored but faces safety and economic challenges.

A new Japanese technology, Hiop, uses catalytic cracking to convert plastic waste into higher-quality crude oil.

Hiop's process is safer than pyrolysis, operating at lower temperatures with a high oil recovery rate of about 80%.

Hiop produces oil with a 50-50 mix of gasoline and diesel, which can be further refined for various uses.

Japan has pioneered plastic-to-oil conversion due to its high reliance on imported oil and massive plastic consumption.

Hiop plants are expected to process 20,000 tons of plastic waste annually, with the first commercial plant coming online in 2025.

The process can also handle contaminated plastics, such as those mixed with PVC, and produces low contamination.

Chemical recycling like Hiop could help fill a gap in Japan's recycling landscape, where mechanical recycling dominates.

Japan generates almost 40 kg of single-use plastic waste per person annually, one of the highest rates globally.

The Hiop process aligns with Japan's efforts to reduce plastic waste and establish a circular economy.

Transcripts

it's something most of us never give a

second thought to however worldwide a

million of us pick up a disposable

plastic drink bottle every minute and

what do we do with the empty once we've

quenched our

thirst if we're conscientious we'll put

it in the trash expecting it to be

recycled or dealt with sustainably but

as we've all seen they can be

thoughtlessly cast aside and end up

littering the streets or our oceans

almost 400 million tons of plastic are

manufactured annually and the volume is

growing about half is designed to be

used only once according to the journal

science advances a little over half

about 55% of plastic waste is

discarded about 20% is incinerated and

the rest 25% is recycled

so the vast majority of our plastic

waste including disposable plastic

bottles ends up in landfills or possibly

the oceans you think we should be proud

of the 25% recycled but there's a catch

the science advances study shows that

only about 6% of all plastic has been

recycled in the last 70 years

unfortunately we've a long way to go

before getting on top of plastic

recycling

since the turn of the century many firms

have experimented and brought to Market

a variety of products made from recycled

Plastics disposable plastic bottles are

now turned into shoes building materials

and the list goes on however all of

these recycled Products reconstitute

plastic using mechanical process by

either downcycling turning water bottles

into garden furniture or AstroTurf where

mechanical Integrity or Optical Clarity

isn't an issue or by upscaling plastic

bottles become bird feeders Christmas

trees or children's toys the goal now is

to return plastic to its constituent

parts so it can either be burned more

efficiently or reused as a constituent

for new Plastic Products the concept of

converting plastic back into crude oil

isn't new there are continuing efforts

to develop commercial processes

involving the breaking down of plastic

bottles and other waste into their

essential components using a method

called pyrolysis in pyrolysis intense

heat of up to 900° centigrade is applied

to plastic waste in an oxygen deprived

environment with various reactors

breaking down the plastic molecules the

results from the process are oil and gas

in the early 2000

a series of Japanese firms began

building plastic to oil conversion

plants to apply the technology in the

real world however these plants were

forced to close due to fires industrial

accidents and economic problems other

countries have been working on building

pyrolysis plants that are large enough

to be commercially

viable in contrast one Japanese company

is using groundbreaking technology to

convert waste into what they call vir

oil to be reused as fuel or for new

Plastics

production environment energy aspires to

commercialize a method called hiop with

its first commercial plant due to come

onstream in

2025 it is the first commercially

available waste plastic oil converter

that uses a catalytic cracking method

and the company has partnered with a

Japanese petroleum company to refine the

crude oil produced using using hiop the

aim is to convert 20,000 tons of plastic

waste into crude oil annually the CEO of

environment energy suji NoDa says a core

purpose of this technology is to create

a circular economy in which waste

becomes the source of new

materials the method was developed and

patented by Professor cowo Fujimoto of

the University of Tokyo and Professor

xia Hong Lee from the University of

kakusu it uses catalysts already

employed in petroleum refining to

distill heavy crude oil molecules into

lighter molecules such as gasoline at

temperatures up to about

450° Centigrade the catalysts attach to

the plastic surface they then break the

material into smaller pieces eventually

converting them into hydrocarbon gases

these are then concentrated into crude

oil the hiop process yields crude oil

abundant in gasoline and Diesel and it's

higher quality oil than can be achieved

with pyrolysis technology the new

technique is expected to lead to a shift

from conventional thermal recycling to

chemical recycling the hiop method has

several advantages over conventional

recycling first off is safety because

catalytic cracking makes the reaction

milder than in pyrolysis and is

therefore safer the process yields about

80% by weight of oil recovered depending

on the quality of plastic waste used as

you can see the machine is relatively

simple to manufacture and is therefore

not expensive it has the added benefit

of dechlorination should PVC be mixed in

with the waste resulting in extremely

low

contamination the pilot plant processes

about 120 tons of waste per month

operating

24/7 with this operation the Catalyst

needs to be changed every 3 days which

takes about half a day to perform making

the plant highly efficient the resultant

mixture is high quality oil containing

50% gasoline and 50% diesel the liquid

can undergo fractional distillation to

create petroleum products for other uses

the base product from the system can be

used as fuel in transportation

generators and Home Heating as well as

as raw material in plastic production

the company hopes plastic to oil

conversion will fill a gap in the

recycling landscape both in Japan and

overseas unsurprisingly this new

recycling process comes from Japan where

mechanical recycling is the dominant

method a little over a fifth of Japan's

plastic waste processing involves

sorting washing and then grinding this

requires the plastic waste to be clean

and despite that it yields lower quality

products with a strong odor and an

unattractive color on the other hand

chemical recycling currently only

accounts for 4% of Japan's plastic waste

processing environment energy says this

is an opportunity to increase the amount

of plastic recycled in Japan and

suggests hiop has the potential to take

on the bulk of the growth CEO shuji NoDa

explains the benefits of recycling

consumer Plastics such as food packaging

are evident which is typically heavily

contaminated and thus harder to

recycle Research into plastic to oil

conversion is happening worldwide but

there appears to be a big push in Japan

with few natural resources Japan has

always been a huge importer of oil and

oil-based products and is a massive

consumer of plastics especially in

packaging consumer tastes for safe and

clean product use have resulted in

overpackaging

Japan now generates almost 40 kg of

single-use plastic waste per person

annually one of the highest rates in the

world so it's no wonder Japan is

pioneering new developments in recycling

plastic waste oh before we go in the

time it's taken you to watch this video

another 10 million disposable plastic

bottles have been bought globally to

give you an idea of the scale putting

them end to end the line of bottles

would stretch from London all the way

across Europe to

Istanbul so it's not just the Japanese

who have to be concerned we all have our

part to

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