RE: Plastikmüll18 Jan 2021 10:11
Article translation (Bing translate)
A British company can use a novel process to turn plastic waste into electricity and hydrogen. For this purpose, an energy-rich synthesis gas is extracted from non-recyclable plastic waste, and heat is produced as a by-product.
16.01.2021 – It sounds almost too good to be true: the British company PowerHouse Energy promises to be able to extract electricity and hydrogen from plastic waste. Using an innovative process, two flies are beaten with one stone and not only plastic waste is disposed of, which otherwise cannot be recycled, but also generates clean energy.
Unlike other so-called energy-from-waste (EfW) processes, the British company can use its plant to process any mixture of polymers directly without having to sort or clean them first. The starting material can even be wet or mixed with organic substances. Especially in the case of plastic waste, these contaminants often do not result in recycling at all. The value is usually too low for collecting, cleaning, sorting and separating, so that the plastic waste ends up in landfills or incinerators.
This is where PowerHouse Energy comes in, which is seeking a new type of chemical recycling. The wasted plastics are recycled by the conversion technology and, according to the company, the maximum energy calorific value is recovered. For this purpose, the plastic parts must first be crushed into equally small pieces before they enter a heat conversion chamber.
The technical process
There, the plastic is heated to a very high temperature and melted within seconds and evaporated into gases. This then produces a synthesis gas consisting mainly of methane, hydrogen and a small amount of carbon monoxide.
There is no oxygen in the thermal conversion chamber, so there can be no combustion of the plastic waste. Instead, a non-combustible oxidizing agent is added in the form of steam, which influences the entire process and thus also the quality of the synthesis gas. The final product is then cleaned, leaving behind a few harmless residues that are less than five percent of the waste's initial volume. They can be reused for other purposes or disposed of safely.
According to PowerHouse Energy, the final synthesis gas has a similar calorific value to natural gas, which is used everywhere as fuel for cooking and heating. A small part of the synthesis gas is used for the operation of the thermal conversion chamber, which means that the operation of the plant is self-sustainable. As a by-product, heat is also produced, which can be used for heating or cooling.
The end product: electricity or hydrogen
Electricity can then be generated from the energy-rich synthesis gas through further processing processes. The gas drives a number of engines that generate electricity and minimize greenhouse gas emissions using modern exhaust gas cleaning devices. In addition, hydrogen can also be produced from the synthesis gas by passing through a special module that s
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