While we do our best to recycle waste in Europe, so far there is no good way to do this with plastic. In response to the very relevant plastic recycling problem, Swiss startup Plastogaz is developing a way to actually recycle plastic, co-founder Felix Bobbink told Heise.
Plastic is currently processed in three ways: thrown away, incinerated, or turned into plastic chips to be melted for reuse. Plastogaz is working on a fourth way to make plastic recycling circular.
“We are working on a process where molecules are broken down into their original components in liquid or gaseous plastic. This material can then be used as a raw material for the production of new plastics.” Molecules from plastic waste are thus made reusable to produce ‘new’ plastic. Currently, plastic doesn’t break down that way, and reusing crushed plastic costs a lot of extra raw materials.
Theoretically, the Plastogas process should be a very economical solution; The plastic is chemically broken down by hydrogen and a catalyst and returned to its original components. It’s a relatively clean process (provided the catalysts survive the process) and has relatively low energy costs, according to the company.
But of course Pstogaz isn’t there yet. For now, it seems that not all types of plastic can simply be decomposed by this chemical means. Also, it’s still very costly to run the process right now. And then there’s scale. The company is currently working on a laboratory reactor that can process 100 grams of plastic. In the long run this should be several kilograms per hour at a pilot plant. Of course, the ultimate goal is to process tons of plastic per day.
Source: Heise
Source: Hardware Info
