VIDEO: Plastic Waste to Fuel & Oil Tech Firm Opens Technology HQ in London : Plastic Energy Limited Expands on Two Existing Commercial Scale Recycling Plants in Spain
Plastic Energy Limited, a company with a process to recycle plastic waste into alternative fuels and oil, has set up its Technology HQ a London with the aim of establishing a global business.
The company explained that it has developed a conversion process for valueless plastic waste, with a patented low carbon footprint technology which produces alternative fuels or oil, known as TACOIL.
TACOIL can be used for making new virgin - food safe - plastics, closing the plastic loop and creating a circular economy.
According to the company, the process means that non-recyclable contaminated plastic can be transformed into a valuable resource which can be used over and over again, rather than polluting the oceans, being buried in landfill or burned.
The firm currently said that it operates two industrial plants in Seville and Almeria in Spain, and now intends to open new recycling plants in the UK, Europe and Asia, as its business expands.
Plastic Energy claimed to be the only operator in the world to have successfully converted domestic end-of-life plastic continuously and at a commercial scale having developed a Thermal Anaerobic Technology (TAC) recycling process.
It added that its modular plants can be built anywhere, integrated into existing infrastructure and complement mechanical recycling, boosting local economies.
“We are excited about the prospect of expanding a business that is already well established in Spain but which offers a solution to the problem of plastic pollution anywhere in the world,” said Carlos Monreal, Plastic Energy’s Founder and CEO.
“We are currently in discussion with potential partners who have global footprints and we are keen to build industrial plants in the UK as part of our organic growth to help solve the problem of plastic waste here,” he added.
Green Credentials
The company, based at Plexal’s Innovation Centre at the Here East site in east London, is an advocate of the circular economy and uses the Syngas produced in its own industrial plants to power them.
Its modular plants can produce approximately 850 litres of output for every tonne of end of life plastic.
Through the TAC process, plastics are heated in an oxygen-free environment the vapour is then distillated into TACOIL that can be either used as an oil to produce plastic or as an alternative fuel said to have a low carbon footprint.
Plastic Energy said that it has been endorsed by naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough and was the supplier of the fuel that enabled pilot Jeremy Rowsell, as part of the ‘On Wings of Waste’ project, to fly 500 miles from Sydney to Melbourne using conventional fuel blended with 10% fuel manufactured by the company.
The company also features in the Plastic Oceans Foundation UK film ‘A Plastic Ocean’ - described by Attenborough as the most important film of our time, as example of a solution to the plastic pollution problem.
The firm concluded that the Spanish connection is reinforced through its membership of the UK based British Spanish Society.
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