The Bombay Technologist

Plastic: Waste to Fuel

Pravin G. Kadam

Department of Polymer Engineering and Technology

Keywords: Plastics, Incineration, Waste, Natural Fuel, Environmental Challenge.

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Abstract

Plastics consumption has increased rapidly throughout the world. Approximately 40% of the plastics have life duration shorter than 1 month, thus there is a huge waste stream creating a serious environmental problem. Thermoplastic polymers make up a high proportion of waste and this amount is continuously increasing, thus posing a more serious environmental challenge because of their huge quantity and disposal problem as thermoplastics do not biodegrade for very long time. Different methods like land filling, incineration, gasification, recycling etc., are used to get rid of them. But by using most of these processes, the resources used to make the plastics are lost and no recovery can be made. In this world of continuously declining natural fuel sources, making of fuel from the waste plastic can be a very beneficial. Various methods like pyrolysis, fluidized catalytic cracking, thermal and catalytic cracking etc., can be used for generation of fuel from waste plastics. Plastics can even be used as fuel themselves in blast furnace with coal. So here is a brief description of the methods used to generate fuel from plastics, Waste Plastics.