Page 49 - Plastics News January 2021

in the news

World's first plastic-to-petrol Ernakulam district to keep vigil

plant in Guntur functional to implement SUP ban

untur Municipal Corporation’s (GMC) project of rnakulam will keep a strict vigil and shall deal
Gconverting plastic waste into synthetic fuel is yielding Estrictly with the violators of the Plastics ban.
results as the Corporation is running at least 100 of its Now in the aftermath of the pandemic as a step to
vehicles including dumpers, tractors, mini compactors enforce the ban on single-use plastics in the district
and autos on synthetic fuel. In the last one month, 8,562 strictly, special squads will be formed at the panch-
kg plastic waste was used to generate an approximately ayat-level to deal with violators. At a meeting held at
the district administration headquarters on Monday,
District Collector S Suhas instructed the secretaries of
local bodies to take stringent action against those who
produce and store such materials. The list of banned
plastic materials include carry bags, thick plastic
sheets used for packing food takeaways, and single-
use plastics like plates, cups and bottles. It was at
the review meeting held on solid waste management
programmes implemented that the collector brought
out the instructions. The collector said that carry bags
being sold in the name of compostable plastics will
also be banned. In the meeting via videoconference,
5,362 litres of diesel, 886 litres of petrol and 3,108 kg of newly-elected district panchayat president Ullas
char. Out of 2,000 litres of fuel required by the Corporation Thomas interacted with the secretaries and asked them
for its vehicles on a daily basis, the plant is providing 600 to address issues related to waste management. The
litres of fuel. Three young technocrats have set up the
world's first plastic-to-petrol making plant in Guntur. The
research by BV Satish Kumar, Mahesh Siripurapu and Mithun
Prem Chand helped Needa Green Energey Limited (NGEL)
to come out with path-breaking innovation to make use of
the plastic to manufacture reusable fuels including petrol
and diesel. Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur Municipal Corporation
(GMC) was the first to tap on establishing what is claimed
to be the world’s first ‘plastic-to-petrol’ making unit.
Trials have been completed at the newly set up plant
where young engineers-turned- entrepreneurs converted
plastic waste into reusable fuels including diesel, petrol
and kerosene. GMC Commissioner C Anuradha said that meeting also observed that the ‘Take a Break’ – project
the trial run proved that the plant can produce fuels aimed at constructing modern restrooms at public
depending on the kind of input plastic waste and capable
of converting waste into fuel ranging between 45% to 95%. places – is progressing. The master plan for effective
She further said that the pet coke by product that is left utilisation of the Performance-based Incentive Grant
out after plastic processing, can be used as manure or in Scheme of the World Bank for various projects was
power generation. Explaining the process of generating also devised. The focus will be on constructing modern
fuel from waste, the plant’s Assistant Engineer (AE) Pavan restrooms at the panchayat-level. The meeting also
said that the process involves five steps and the diesel has assessed the progress of the plan for renovating 1,000
to be utilised in 1:1 ratio. offices in line with the Green Protocol.

49 Januar y 2021 Plastics News