WASHINGTON (CNN) — Like the alchemists who once tried to turn lead into gold, a green entrepreneur says he has found a cost-effective method for turning plastic trash into oil.
The Envion plant turns plastic garbage into oil by isolating petroleum from the plastic’s other ingredients.
During a recent visit to his new demonstration plant in Maryland, Envion CEO Michael Han describes his process: Waste plastic is shredded and melted and then processed in a way that separates the petroleum from the rest of the ingredients.
At one end of the machinery, shredded plastic trash is dumped in a hopper and goes up a conveyor belt into a “reactor.” At the other end is a spaghetti of pipes and valves and tanks.
Han turns open a spigot on one of the pipes and produces a liquid the color of apple juice. It smells kind of like diesel, and Han claims it’s ready to be processed for any number of uses: fueling cars, diesel generators or even jets.
But not all of the ingredients in plastic can be refined into petroleum. All the chemicals that were added when the plastic was produced must be separated out and collected in a sediment tank.
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