US company turns plastic waste into oil

US company turns plastic waste into oil

Could lead to 20 per cent cut in crude oil demand

Posted by Aharon Etengoff at 05:48 AM GMT on Mar 18, 2009
OREGON-BASED Agri-Plas has managed to successfully convert discarded agricultural plastic into crude oil.

The company recently delivered its first full tanker (8,200 gallons) of oil to a Washington state refinery for further processing.

"This technology allows us to continually reuse petroleum-based products over and over again," Dari Jongsma, owner and founder of Agri-Plas told The News. "By our estimates, the United States could realise a 20 per cent reduction in crude oil demand if all domestic agricultural plastics were recycled with this process. That figure could dramatically increase if recycling programmes expanded beyond agricultural plastics to, for example, curbside plastics."

According to Jongsma, the company collects unwanted plastic that "chokes landfills or is abandoned, burned or buried" and converts it back into synthetic crude oil. Plastic products reportedly include dirty agricultural film, greenhouse covers, mixed nursery material, prepackaged food containers and lids, as well as other low- or zero-value plastics.

Agri-Plas currently operates one plastic-to-oil conversion unit. However, future plans envision the construction of five, four-unit Plas2Fuel reclamation systems capable of producing a tanker full of crude oil per day.

The synthetic crude oil that Agri-Plas has reclaimed from unwanted plastic can be refined for a variety of uses, including makeup, gasoline, diesel, lubricants and other petroleum-based products.

"The fact that Agri-Plas has been able to take plastic that would otherwise go directly into the waste stream and convert it into a commercial product that can eventually be pumped into a gas tank is truly groundbreaking," explained Tim McCabe, director of the Oregon Economic & Community Development Department.

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