Man Invents Machine To Convert Plastic Into Oil

[lane912]

this was just sent to me it looks interesting, could it be real? I know there are a couple of you all that would know

Man Invents Machine To Convert Plastic Into Oil

[red-beard]

Plastic generally starts out as oil. I expect that the coal to oil process would work. I don't know how efficient it would be. Although, the raw material is almost free.

[Aurel]

I read the brochure, but it did not teach me a lot about the process. There has to be some form of depolymerization of those plastics occuring to turn them back to oil. I am curious about the type of process involved: chemical, mechanical, other? In the mean time, I will consider that it just creates snake oil.

[Aurel]

I learned more from wikipedia:

Thermal depolymerization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Tobra]

I always thought it was a shame to burn petroleum after I took organic chemistry, it is so good for making so very many things.

[BeyGon]

If someone can turn plastic into oil there is a free glob of plastic the size of Texas floating in the Pacific. Clean up the ocean and make oil.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Tobra

I always thought it was a shame to burn petroleum after I took organic chemistry, it is so good for making so very many things.

It's one of the reasons I was us to go hard over to nuclear. We should be making plastics with the oil, not using it for fuel.

[island911]

yeah, it's not as if bio-matter grows on trees. .... oh, wait.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by red-beard

It's one of the reasons I was us to go hard over to nuclear. We should be making plastics with the oil, not using it for fuel.

Uh uh, plastic is baaaaaaadddd for the planet. that's why the tree huggers are forcing us to stop using plastic bags at the supermarket and instead use paper bags made from cut down trees.
That's much better ......... wait what?

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Aurel

I learned more from wikipedia:

Thermal depolymerization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From the chart looks like they can do car tires too. I've always read it takes more energy to break down tires than they can get back out.

Game changer?

[island911]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Uh uh, plastic is baaaaaaadddd for the planet. that's why the tree huggers are forcing us to stop using plastic bags at the supermarket and instead use paper bags made from cut down trees.
That's much better ......... wait what?

Kill a tree or choke a whale . . .I'm so conflicted.

I suppose there is option 3. .. reusable bag, chalked full of lead paint from China.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Or maybe we could just buy and consume less crap.

Naaaaaaaaaaaah. That's "un-American"

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by island911

Kill a tree or choke a whale . . .I'm so conflicted.

I suppose there is option 3. .. reusable bag, chalked full of lead paint from China.

I've been to the beach many times and don't recall seeing any choking whales. I use plastic bags and to the best of my knowledge none of them have harmed a whale in any way.
It surely can't be a myth that was created by PETA or greenpeace................................

BTW, unless you were born after 1977 you played with toys and lived in a house that were painted with thousands of times more lead than anything that has recently come from China.
They found TRACES of lead in the paint on some Chinese toys, prior to 1977 they used LARGE PERCENTAGES of lead in the paint, not just TRACES.

Of course saying that wouldn't make for very dramatic or sensationalistic news, and wouldn't give the 5 second sound bite crowd anything to talk about.

It seems funny but all those generations that grew up with lead paint seemed to turn out just fine, but the gen X, millennia, and 9/11 generations that had to do without lead paint sure seem screwed up in comparison .....

[RWebb]

no, it is not a myth sammy -- how many whales do you examine per year?

most marine life can be harmed by many plastic items and other item BTW, not just whales


real question re this method is cost.

[944Larry]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Uh uh, plastic is baaaaaaadddd for the planet. that's why the tree huggers are forcing us to stop using plastic bags at the supermarket and instead use paper bags made from cut down trees.
That's much better ......... wait what?

Things have come full circle Sammy, I remember when all we had was paper bags.

[jyl]

It is a dumb idea. Market mechanisms mean that, outside of temporary disruptions, there will always be as much oil as there is demand for at the market-clearing price. For each use, what level of price becomes demand-destructive at what prices? For common plastic, demand is not much affected by oil prices. Think back to when oil went up by $100, down by nearly that much, and then up again, in the past few years. You saw the impact on users of oil for energy: airlines went BK, Americans dumped SUVs, people on this board wailed. Did you see any meaningful impact on users of oil for plastic? Did crappy Chinese toys shoot up in price, did people wail here that their Walmart dollars didn't go as far? Oil is not a big enough part of the cost of the typical plastic item for anyone to notice.

Therefore, there is no economic point to expending energy to convert plastic back to oil. There will be plenty of oil to make plastic, because rising oil price (and environmental requirements) will have depressed consumption of oil for fuel. There will not be an economic reason to convert, because the raw plastic is so cheap relative to the price of the product.

Maybe interesting in 500 years.

[svandamme]

off course it's possible to turn plastic into oil... the real question is ... how much plastic is required to make how much oil... And how much energy does it take to do that?

Never mind what other chemicals you need , and what waste uit produces.


my guess is... You can't even produce enough oil to produce the energy required to convert the plastic into oil... eg, it's a nett loss.

[widebody911]

A lot of plastics are actually made from natural gas.

[svandamme]

that don't make sense.... how would a gas be the base product fo a solid?

edit, dont' mean to diss your statment, i just don't get it... how something gas like, can be the base product of somtin solid

[RWebb]

synthetic chemistry - CH4 = methane; hook them together and you can make a plastic

he never said it wash cheap