Plastic Fuel and Earth
DHHYANI DAMA
AABHA PATIL
VED AMIN
SHIVEN SONI
SHREY
Outline
Plastic is something that is all around us. We use it every day in each and everything. Let it be in cutlery or furniture like chairs, plastic had surrounded us from all the sides. But most of it lands up on our roads and buildings, which pollutes the world. Hence, for our climate action, we thought of converting plastic waste that we see all around us into fuel, which will prevent climate change to increase.
"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS 'AWAY' WHEN WE THROW ANYTHING AWAY IT MUST GO SOMEWHERE"
- Annie Leonard
This was the quote by Annie Leonard that inspired us to convert plastic waste to fuel. We thought if the plastic has to be somewhere, then why not fuel, it will prevent fossil fuels from burning as well as reducing plastic waste.
This is a photo taken by Dhhyani Dama during her trip to Gujurat. We thought that why not try and use this waste to make it to fuel as well. We are aiming for plastic waste just like this.
Questions we asked ourselves:
- What is plastic and what are the types of plastic?
- How is plastic made and how does it affect us?
- Why should we take this step?
- How will this benefit us?
- Where will this be used?
- Who will take the responsibility for plastic fuel?
- How will we exactly make it?
Our Goals:
- To encourage reducing Plastic Waste
- To encourage recycling Plastic
- To make people aware of the effects of Plastic and how to use it to our benefit
What is plastic and what are the types of plastic?
Plastic is a kind of material that is made by us and can be formed into almost any shape. Most plastics are strong, long-lasting, and lightweight and they resist damage by water, heat, chemicals, and electricity. The first synthetic plastic was made in 1907 when a Belgian named Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite in a plan in New York. Known as "The material of 1000 Uses", it was eventually used for phones, radios, jewelry, and more! Many chemists continued Leo's work, and soon other types of plastics with different properties were developed, such as cellophane in 1912 and nylon in 1935.
Today there are more than 50 kinds of plastic and in the past 100 years, its invention has changed the world as we know it.
How is plastic made and how does it affect us?
Plastics are made from raw materials like natural gas, oil, or plants, which are refined into ethane and propane. Ethane and propane are then treated with heat in a process called "cracking" which turns them into ethylene and propylene. These materials are combined together to create different polymers.
Plastic pollution causes harm and affects u all, humans, animals, and even plants through toxic pollutants. It can take hundreds or even thousands of years for plastic to break down so the environmental damage is long-lasting. It affects all organisms in the food chain from tiny species like worms through to whales. You see, it is kind of a chain, the fishes eat the plastic and then we eat the fishes, so indirectly it is affecting us as well.
But plastic has also given us so many benefits. Because of it, our life I so much easier now. Plastic packaging helps protect and preserve goods while reducing weight in transportation which saves fuel and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. From computers and cell phones to televisions and microwaves, durable, lightweight, and affordable plastics have helped revolutionize the electronics we rely on every day.
Why should we take this step?
The estimate shows that less than 5% of the plastic manufactured every 12 months is recycled, with the manufacturing of the material set to boom by 3.8% every year till 2030, including the 6.3 billion tonnes churned out because manufacturing commenced 60 years ago.
The majority finally ends up in our oceans, posing a disruption to marine ecosystems, which researchers are expecting might take at least 450 years to biodegrade, if plastic-derived fuels also can generate a cleaner-burning gas than conventional assets because of their low sulfur content, thinking about the bulk of growing international locations use sulfur-heavy.
How will this benefit us?
Solid waste can be converted into gas to produce energy. We can generate fuel from plastic waste found in landfills. A community must have a waste to energy facility that burns up garbage and transforms chemical energy into thermal energy. This will help us because this will create abundant amounts of energy since there are so much plastic and non-plastic around the world.
Where will this be used?
One strategy to combat plastic pollution is to convert the plastic waste of the ocean into something of value. We can say that plastic to fuel ideas could be used practically everywhere. Wherever we need fuel, we can use this idea of converting plastic waste to fuel. We can use it on a motorcycle or even in a car or an airplane.
About six billion tons of plastic waste has been generated around the world in the past 50 years. Very little, this waste is recycled, and lose to 80 percent of it sits in landfills or in the natural environment, where it harms wildlife, reaches harmful chemicals, and emits greenhouse gases, hence we think it is extremely necessary to use it wherever possible to save our Earth.
Who will take the responsibility for plastic fuel?
The people of the world should take care of it but at the same time we should not litter to there is no point in removing plastic if you add it at the same time. We should spread awareness and give ideas to remove the plastic. There are already some groups and organizations that are converting plastic waste to fuel. We should have teams that are experts in the area of converting plastic waste to fuel. Just like the Dehradun-based Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), many other institutions support plastic to fuel. The IIP in 2014, developed a unique process of converting plastic waste like polyethylene and polypropylene, both together accounting for 60 percent of plastic waste to fuel.
INSTITUTE OF IIP (DEHRADUN)
How will we exactly do it?
Plastics are hydrocarbons that are made from petroleum, and they can be converted back to liquid fuel. One of the maximum famous strategies in changing plastic is called pyrolysis. This method calls for heating the plastics at a totally excessive temperature. Materials are separated and this permits for them to be reused in an eco-pleasant way.
Researchers at Purdue University have found a special method called hydrothermal processing. The technique places polypropylene in a reactor full of water, and hear it up to extremely excessive temperatures starting from 380-500 degrees Celsius. This keeps for up to 5 hours at high pressure. At this excessive warmth and pressure, water breaks down the plastic and converts it into the oil. Most plastics are at the beginning made from oil so this manner brings them again to the authentic form.
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