ITPLAST Aprile 2024 | Page 51

MATERIALS AND APPLICATIONS

PLASTICS FROM THE SEA BECOME OIL

Process for converting plastic waste recovered from the sea developed by Enea researchers .
An Enea research team has devised a process to turn over 90 % of plastic waste from the sea into new “ oil ” to be used as fuel or to produce new plastics , paints , solvents and countless organic compounds . This activity was conducted as part of the European interregional Italy- Croatia project “ Netwap ” on the reduction and innovative management of waste , whose outcomes were published in the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering , researcher at the Enea Laboratory of Technologies for the Reuse , Recycling , Recovery and Valorisation of Waste and Materials , who conducte the study with Lorenzo Cafiero and Doina De Angelis . “ To further improve yield and quality – said Tuffi – we used a catalyst , obtained in turn from the processing of a waste material , i . e . the ash produced by gasification and coal combustion plants , an industrial waste whose annual global producand 8 % in gas ) and the gases produced during the thermo-chemical treatment proved to be more than sufficient to meet the process energy requirement ( 450 ° C ). Collection and mechanical recycling of plastic collected at sea is much more complicated than urban waste treatment , because it involves heterogeneous materials composed of many polymers of different shapes and sizes , which are difficult to identify and collect . In addition , they may contain a considerable quantity of sand , salt , shells and algae and generally also undergo different degradation processes , like photooxidation , caused by solar radiation . “ All these factors make mechanical recycling a challenging task while catalytic pyrolysis can be regarded as one of the best options for the fuel for boats from the plastic recovered at sea ,” said Tuffi .
THE EUROPEAN PACKAGING REGULATION The European Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive has set plastic recycling targets of 50 % by 2025 and 55 % by 2030 . Furthermore , the Circular Economy Action Plan has been issued to encourage recycling , with a strong focus on plastic waste , and to prevent and reduce the impact of single-use plastic products on the environment . However , according to the 2022 report by Plastics Europe , the European association which comprises over 100 polymer producers , covering 90 % of the market , global plastic production was constantly growing until 2019 with 368 million tons . Most of this plastic , used for single-
the online scientific journal of the American Chemical Society . “ We treated samples of plastic collected at sea with a particular thermo-chemical technique called pyrolysis , which causes plastic material to convert - at a temperature above 400 ° C and in the absence of oxygen - into oil and gas rich in hydrocarbons , which can potentially be used to produce new fuels and chemical products ”, explained Riccardo Tuffi ,
tion amounts to approximately 1 billion tons , Considered a potential cause of environmental pollution , its use for the synthesis of catalysts could represent a step forward to make production processes more sustainable ”.
HIGH-VALUE HYDROCARBONS The waste plastic sample examined was converted into high-value hydrocarbons ( about 87 % in light oil
treatment of marine plastic , because it can process large quantities of highly heterogeneous and nonpretreated waste ”, pointed out the Enea researcher . A recent survey revealed that none of the more than 100 small and medium-sized companies processing marine plastic waste worldwide used pyrolysis . “ In the near future , however , small pyrolysis plants installed in ports could even produce
use packaging , consequently quickly becomes waste . Unfortunately , plastic waste is often disposed of inadequately , causing serious environmental problems : according to Unesco 8 to 10 million tonnes of plastic materials end up in the ocean , making up up to 80 % of marine litter , mostly accumulating on the ocean floor ( 70 %), while the rest remains on the coasts ( 15 %) and on the water surface ( 15 %).
Italian technology plast / April 2024
www . plastmagazine . it
051