Pyrolysis: A new dawn for plastic recycling

As the word is making a big effort in order to transition from the consumer economy to a more circular economy, there is one material which poses a serious obstacle: Plastic.

Plastic is very difficult to recycle, as the recycling process produces lower quality material compared to the one produced from oil, this led plastic recycling facilities accepting only some types of plastic, while the landfills were stacked up with plastic no one wanted to recycle. But it has been developed a new process that promises to recycle all types of plastics with a very low carbon footprint: Pyrolysis.

This process was previously used for biomass, and it consists in in breaking down a complex material in in simpler components by heating it up in absence of oxygen. It has been found that when plastic goes through this process, it breaks down into oil, gas and char, a material used to make roads. This process is way simpler than the common mechanical plastic recycling process, however, it poses its challenges, plastic must be cleaned before entering the reactor where pyrolysis takes place to avoid contamination, the reactors used to heat up the plastic are quite expensive and consume a lot of energy. It is also a slow process, only small reactors can operate continuously, while bigger reactors need constant maintenance and thus a big plant is needed to recycle an adequate amount of plastic.

Despite the challenges it poses, pyrolysis could be a big breakthrough for a circular economy if a proper application is realised. The states that could mostly benefit it are the ones that depend on solar energy, for example, each summer roughly 250000MW of energy are wasted in California because the production of the solar panels is higher than the state’s demand. California could import plastic waste during summer and use the spare energy from the solar plants to turn it into fuel that can then be stored and used to produce energy at night or during winter.

innovation is the way many people are using to contribute to win over the plastic pollution problem in humanity's struggle to preserve our planet

New inventions are continuously developed to solve our problems, and innovation is the way many people are using to contribute to win over the plastic pollution problem in humanity's struggle to preserve our planet.

Oskar Majdzinski and Alessio Fino, (@Eco_Life_Better_Life on Instagram)