To create the fuel, the duo has developed a mobile reactor, which converts plastic waste into fuel and can fit into a 20-foot shipping container or on the back of a flat-bed truck.

Waste360 Staff, Staff

April 3, 2017

1 Min Read
Organic Chemist Teams with Sailboat Captain to Turn Plastic Waste from Oceans into Diesel Fuel

Organic chemist Swaminathan Ramesh, Ph.D. and sailboat captain James E. Holm are teaming up to turn plastic waste found in oceans into valuable diesel fuel. To create the fuel, the duo has developed a mobile reactor, which converts plastic waste into fuel and can fit into a 20-foot shipping container or on the back of a flat-bed truck. The capacity of the reactor can be scaled to handle anywhere from 200 pounds to more than 10,000 pounds per 10-hour day.

Phys.org has more details:

Billions of pounds of plastic waste are littering the world's oceans. Now, a Ph.D. organic chemist and a sailboat captain report that they are developing a process to reuse certain plastics, transforming them from worthless trash into a valuable diesel fuel with a small mobile reactor. They envision the technology could someday be implemented globally on land and possibly placed on boats to convert ocean waste plastic into fuel to power the vessels.

The researchers will present their results today at the 253rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Read the full story here.

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