VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) commissioner V Prasanna Venkatesh has shown interest in taking up a project which involves construction of a plant which will convert plastic waste into plastic oil, which can serve as an alternative to diesel and can be used to run generators.
Explaining the process of converting plastic waste into oil, managing director (MD) of Paterson Energy Pvt Ltd Vidya Amarnath said, “We accept any type of plastic- from single-use to premium quality ones generally used for packaging automobiles. The plastic is burnt in the absence of oxygen at temperatures as high as 350 to 400 degrees celsius. The best part of this process is that unlike recycling, the plastic is converted into a form resembling crude oil.”
She said the diesel can be easily replaced with this plastic oil as the latter consists of 99 per cent of the former’s components.
“During our pilot project for which we set up a plant with one tonne capacity, we studied various aspects and one among those were, where can this oil be used and what can be replaced. This oil can be used by industries as fuel and also can be used to run generators that run on diesel.”
The MD also said that the company believes in zero effluent emission. “By zero effluents we imply that using this plastic oil reduces pollution levels caused due to smoke emitted by the industries through chimneys and by zero emission we mean that we capture the harmful gasses produced by our machines during the conversion process. These gasses are redirected to generate power for our factory’s machinery and thus the environment is not affected,” Amarnath explained.
Discussing the cost for setting up the plant she informed that a unit with capacity of six tonnes of plastic intake per day will cost between `6 to 10 crore. Also, the industries that would use the plastic oil will have to shelve nearly 25 to 30 per cent less money for energy production, as they can buy this oil at `35 to `40 per litre as against `80 per litre of diesel.Such an initiative can prove useful as the city produces nearly 150 tonnes of plastic waste per day.
