Page 54 - Plastics News March 2018

teChnoLogy

IIT-M students develop mobile unit that turns plastic waste into fuel oil

team of students from IIT-Madras has developed fuel. One kilogram of plastic will give 0.9 litre of fuel oil.
A a solar-powered mobile unit that converts non- The primary objective of the plastic fuel mobile unit is
recyclable plastic waste into fuel oil that is cheaper than waste management,” she said. A couple of industries like
diesel and can be used as a substitute in generators, Indian Oil Corporation have already shown interest in the
industrial boilers, furnaces, diesel-powered engines and
agricultural pumps.The technology, when scaled up into a technology. Indumathi M Nambi, professor, Environmental
full-fledged commercial product, can be the ideal solution and Water Resources Engineering Division, Department of
for city corporations to manage plastic waste. This green Civil Engineering, IIT-M, said the mobile unit can cater to
technology — Plastic Pyrolysis — essentially breaks down the waste management needs of big residential complexes
polymer chain in plastic at 350-500 degree Celsius in the and industries. This mode of plastic disposal can also come
absence of oxygen to get the low density fuel oil.The best under CSR activity of the corporate sector.
thing about this technology is that even waste such as
plastic bags, packaging material and other miscellaneous
plastic stuff that are not normally picked up by ragpickers Chandigarh’s Thapar techie
for recycling can be used as raw materials. develop brick from waste to save

These non-recyclable varieties are a real nightmare as power
they do not degrade, but clog drains, choke livestock and
mar the environment. As per the study conducted by the aran Chawla (24), a student of MTech in Structural
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India generates KEngineering at the Thapar Institute of Engineering
about 5.6 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, of and Technology who had earlier developed a brick from
which 2.24 million tonnes remain uncollected. Chennai waste, that allowed light to pass through it has now set
ranks second among all the cities with 429 tonnes of up Roschcrete, a start-up, which develops such bricks to
plastic waste being generated daily. Research scholar G save electricity cost during the daytime. These bricks
Divyapriya, who is part of the student team, said there do not have any hole and do not let heat pass through.
are large-scale pyrolysis plants with a capacity of five Also, these do not require any paint or plaster, which
simplifies the construction and saves time and money.
tonnes per day. “There is one at Alandur, but these plants
These bricks are two-and-a-half times expensive, 20
per cent heavier, but one-and-a-half times stronger
than normal bricks.
Chawla was at Panjab University today for a national
entrepreneurship summit, “Udyami”.“Bricks are made
of using about 70 per cent waste material and also
reduce carbon footprint,” he said. Introducing his start-
up, he said, “We don’t need financial investment. We
are looking for strategic partners. We are going small
and taking only pre-orders.”“I have filed one patent
and will file three more soon,” he said. Chawla’s idea
has been entirely funded by the Thapar institute,
which has spent about Rs 4 lakh in two years. “I have
are not optimised due to low input of raw materials. Ours got help from teachers and mentors, and have been
is a completely decentralised mechanism, where the provided machinery. The institute even sent me to
vehicle can go to the corporation collection points once the Netherlands for coaching,” he said.The start-up
in a fortnight and process the waste. We are also working is offering four products — floor tiles, table top, brick
on different catalysts that can improve the yield of the and wall cladding and name plate logo.

Plastics News March 2018 54