Chementator: Europe to get a new wave of plastic-to-diesel plants

Over the next four years, EnvoSmart Technologies B.V. (Roosendaal, Netherlands; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-533) plans to install 31 ThermoFuel systems throughout Europe for converting plastic waste into low-sulfur diesel fuel. The first six systems are to be located near Berlin, Germany, where they will produce 38 million L/yr of diesel from 42,000 m.t./yr of plastic when started up in mid 2007. Subsequent facilities are planned for the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic. The plants will be supplied by Ozmotech Pty Ltd. (Notting Hill, Victoria, Australia; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-534), which developed the ThermoFuel process based on a Japanese design. Since then, the efficiency of the system has been improved, making it more competitive than landfill costs in Europe, says Ozmotech marketing manager Marc Middleton. In the ThermoFuels process (block diagram) mixed plastic waste is continuously pyrolyzed in a cylindrical chamber at 370–420°C. The pyrolysis gas is then condensed into a hydrocarbon (HC) distillate comprising straight- and branched-chained aliphatics, cyclic aliphatics and aromatic hydrocarbons. The sulfur content of the produced fuel is below 10 ppm, says Middleton. The ThermoFuel process…