Plastic
solution for impending energy crisis
By Aakanksha Kumar
It clogs sewers, chokes rivers, undermines
soil fertility, and even finds its way into the stomachs of cattle…
Yet, ask consumers and they vouch for its convenience, cost-effectiveness,
and availability. The omnipresent plastic bag may have become
an environmentalist's nightmare but is difficult to displace from
our daily lives.
The type of litter
we generate and the approximate time it takes to degenerate |
Type of litter |
Approximate time
taken to degenerate |
Organic waste |
1-2 weeks |
Paper |
10-30 days |
Cotton cloth |
2-5 months |
Wood |
10-15 years |
Woollens |
1 year |
Tin,
aluminium, and other
metal items like cans |
100-500
years |
Plastic bags |
1 million years
|
Glass bottles |
Undetermined |
Mounting plastic heaps, predominantly
propagated by the emergent 'throwaway culture' raise concerns
about the disposal of this escalating nightmare. While there have
been legislative attempts to restrict the use of plastic in daily
life, public response has been lukewarm. Researchers have tried
to address the problem by turning their attention to biodegradable
plastic, which can be slowly devoured by tiny microbes. The problem
of littering and diminishing dumping grounds, however, lingers
on.
In a bid to address this Catch 22
situation, the Delhi-based scientists have come up with a novel
technology that converts non-biodegradable plastic wastes into
an eco-friendly green fuel. And, unlike plastic, the fuel burns
easy, is sans sooty flames, and can be stored for ages too.
The rationale of using plastics as
fuel, says Dr R K Khandal, Director, Sriram Institute of Industrial
Research, New Delhi, is that they are derived from petroleum products,
and are thus good reservoirs of energy, comparable to coal and
fuel oils. But, unlike coal and oil, plastic is difficult to burn,
emits a lot of smoke and soot, and even drips while burning.
Recommendations from the
international conference
Plastics and Environment: opportunities and challenges,
24-25 February 2003, New Delhi, organized
by Sriram Institute for Industrial Research, Delhi
Encouraging use of plastic waste in road construction
Emphasizing on
converting plastic waste to liquid fuel
Blending plastics
with other substrates to get value-added products
Developing technology
to use non-recyclable plastic as fuel
Promoting indigenous
technology to use biodegradable plastic
Levying cess
on plastic users
Carrying out
mass awareness campaigns to sensitize the populace on new
technologies.
|
'What we have done is to explore
ways to improve upon the properties of plastic as fuel. We prepared
different types of fuels by simply adding wastes like sawdust,
waste paper, leaf, and coal dust. All the blended fuels showed
marked improvements in ease of burning. This is because wastes
help to increase the porosity of plastic that traps oxygen, helping
it to burn', says Dr R K Raina, who has done extensive work on
the project.
'This is for the first time in India
that an attempt has been made to harness the stored energy of
plastic as fuel,' explains Dr Khandal. 'If we simply burn plastic
or leave it to be degraded by microbes, we lose energy. Besides,
both these processes ultimately result in the production of carbon
dioxide, which is responsible for global warming,' he adds.
Experiments to convert plastic into
fuel began in China in the early 1970s when oil prices suddenly
increased dramatically. Today China has a number of factories
that produce fuel from plastic but most of these establishments
are small and lack coordination in waste accumulation; also, the
fuel produced is liquid. What adds value to the Indian process
is that it is not only environmentally friendly but also addresses
the problem of malodour and low stability of liquid fuel produced.
Incidentally, the technology adopted
to achieve this innovation is very simple. Plastic waste is heated
to a very high temperature of 110 ºC, mixed with non-plastic
wastes, compacted, and cut into blocks, which have a long shelf
life. 'With low moisture levels and ash content and higher calorific
values than coal, the blended fuels can easily substitute coal,'
says Dr Raina. The technology, which is awaiting commercialization,
has a market for both the industrial and domestic sectors. The
industries that this technology can benefit are the ones that
are energy-intensive: cement, sugar, brick, ceramics, also power
stations and so on. It would also be especially useful for villages,
where women can easily blend agricultural wastes with plastic
waste into blocks of fuel and store it for long.
'So, at negligible costs, this eco-friendly
fuel can reduce dependence on coal, as well as help minimize environmental
perils,' says Dr Khandal. A great leap into the future indeed,
for India ranks sixth in the total energy consumption in the world,
consuming about 20% of the global average. And the spiralling
rate of development is an indicator that requirement of energy
is bound to grow at a much faster pace.
Currently, 75% of the coal consumed
in India is utilized for power generation. It is estimated that
our coal production would plateau in the next 10 years, and the
reserves would hardly last another 40 years. The oil and gas reserves
also can endure the onslaught for another 20 years. In such a
grim scenario, the only reserves to fall back upon are renewables.
The key challenge that we face today is to ensure their adequate
availability, in a cost-effective and eco-friendly way. With the
growth of the plastic industry being higher in India than elsewhere
in the world, this represents an untapped area that can easily
be exploited.
Among various sectors, packaging
presents a major area where the demand has been continuous and
growing. It covers about 52% of the total plastic generated in
the country. 'Converting the locally available post-use plastic
feedstock is a very economical and attractive option,' says Dr
Raina. Besides, the technique can also be used to convert municipal
solid wastes that are generously sprinkled with plastic waste,
as fuel. For a country, where this figure touches about 36.5 million
tonnes per year, the potential is immense.
It seems we will literally have to
go down in the dumps to seek solutions to tackle the dual problem:
the growing plastic menace and the dwindling energy reserves.
Source: http://www.teriin.org
