{"id":5404,"date":"2012-04-06T17:11:41","date_gmt":"2012-04-07T00:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=5404"},"modified":"2012-04-06T17:11:44","modified_gmt":"2012-04-07T00:11:44","slug":"another-plastics-recycler-turning-waste-to-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/another-plastics-recycler-turning-waste-to-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Plastics Recycler Turning Waste to Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent news item on National Public Radio<\/a> caught this blogger’s ear, and showed the increasing number of companies attempting to control an otherwise uncontrollable growth of plastic waste.<\/p>\n

JBI, Inc., \u00a0a startup company<\/a>\u00a0says, in promoting its new process, \u201cOur patent pending Plastic2Oil\u00ae (P2O\u00ae) process is a commercially viable, proprietary process designed to provide immediate economic benefit for industry, communities and government organizations with waste plastic recycling challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

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JBI's processor line<\/p><\/div>\n

JBI\u2019s process uses consumer waste plastic bags (the so-called \u201cT-shirt\u201d bags in which shoppers carry groceries to their cars, Number 5 automotive plastic, food containers and even plastic gas tanks and wine bags.\u00a0 These are fed onto a conveyer system in JBI\u2019s Niagara Falls, New York plant, where they are loaded into a hopper that can accommodate 4,000 pounds per hour of waste plastic.\u00a0 The material flows through an apparatus, 120 feet long, 10 feet wide and 20 feet high, which first preheats and liquefies it.\u00a0 Semisolid materials are separated, and the liquid goes to a reactor, where up to 86-percent hydrocarbons are removed to further processing.<\/p>\n

At this point, light gases such as methane ethane, butane and propane (about 12 percent of the output, according to the company) are fed to the furnaces for fueling the process.\u00a0\u00a0 Fuel oil and Diesel are condensed and sent to temporary fuel tanks.\u00a0 Further refining takes place and produces high-quality fuels that emulate those produced through normal refining processes.<\/p>\n

A final two-to-four percent comes out as a \u201cpetcoke\u201d carbon black residue, which cannot be safely put into landfills.\u00a0 It does have a heating value of 10,600 BTUs per pound, though, and can be used by steel mills to fuel blast furnaces.<\/p>\n

JBI claims, \u201cThe emissions documented by CRA from the P2O stack test were lower than what would be produced by the same test on a natural gas furnace of similar size,\u201d and put almost 16 percent oxygen back into the air.<\/p>\n

John Bordynuik, head of his self-named company, says that it costs $10 to produce a barrel of Number 6 fuel oil from plastic waste, oil which can sell for $100 a barrel. \u00a0This is enticing to investors, with the company recently starting a second production line. \u00a0It’s also brought the unwelcome attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who cited the company for over-valuing its assets to raise additional investment funding. \u00a0Even their highly productive line, which squeezes 90 percent oil from every pound of otherwise unrecyclable plastic, is sometimes mischaracterized as “synthetic,” leading to some buyer resistance.<\/p>\n

How well the company weathers these tempests will help determine how JBI, Inc. and other innovative startups in the energy field fare in the long term. \u00a0We wish them all well.<\/p>\n