Scientists of Perm National Research Polytechnic University (PNRPU) have developed an installation from domestic components, which can be used to produce various types of fuel from plastic waste, according to a press release of PNRPU.
It is noted that the developed unit can process a wide range of industrial waste, while requiring 4 times less working area compared to analogs) and it is entirely made of domestic components.
The development is designed for deep processing of waste with the help of a universal solvent — water in the fluid state. The sets are designed on the basis of the basic technological scheme and can be adapted to the customer’s tasks, taking into account the type and composition of raw materials, the required capacity and the necessary depth of processing.
«In its normal state, water does not have sufficient properties to decompose plastic. However, this can be changed. We placed the water in a closed system, heated it to 373 °C and compressed it at a pressure above 217 atmospheres. This is how the substance reached a critical point and went into a fluid state, while remaining a liquid and a gas at the same time. This makes it possible to break down the most complex chemical chains of industrial waste while preventing them from sticking back together, creating even more complex waste. Water becomes not only one of the most effective solvents, but also the most environmentally friendly,» said Gleb Ivanov, a postgraduate assistant of the Department of Automation and Telemechanics, resident of the Business Incubator «Dynamics of Growth» at PNIIPU.
The uniqueness of the solution lies in the fact that it does not require preliminary sorting and purification of raw materials, while processing produces a finished product at once.
«Existing plastic recycling technologies, for example through combustion, produce purified secondary pellets, while the result of our solution is an initial petroleum product that can be used for fuel production. The proposed solution separates complex waste into simple components and does not require a separate market, as in the case of secondary raw materials. The output is different types of fuel: gasoline, kerosene, diesel, totaling up to 85% of the total volume of feedstock. Everything that others cannot process, we will be able to process,» summarizes Oleg Ivanov, the project’s scientific director and Chief Technologist of NEP-Perm.
The development of the Perm Polytechnic scientists is capable of processing more than 100 types of industrial waste, while similar solutions specialize in only 5-10 of the same type.
It is noted that in Russia among similar ones there are only laboratory installations, unsuitable for scaling up for industrial tasks, and production in China is 2-3 times more expensive and has no local resources for repair and maintenance.
Scientists have already received letters of interest in the project from petrochemical companies and a grant from the FSI, thanks to which pilot equipment has been created. Together with the largest of them, they are already testing the first samples and negotiating a contract for implementation.