Nagpur: Out of fuel? Reach for your plastic bag. Unbelievable, believe it because a couple in Nagpur may have solved the problem of both plastic disposal and cheap petrol production.
Head of the Department of Organic Chemistry at Nagpur's Raisoni College of engineering, Alka Zadgoankar and her husband Umesh, started working on the project in 1995 and finally hit pay dirt in 1999.
“Both plastics and petro-products are hydrocarbons. The only difference is that in plastics the chain of molecules is longer. So, I wondered if it was possible to break the chain into small segments to convert into value-added fuel," says Umesh.
The method to their madness, shredded plastic waste, without any oxygen, is heated with coal and a secret chemical.
One kilo of plastic and 100 gm of coal churn out 1 litre of fuel. More processing and Alka says you could get refined petrol.
Alka has got Rs 59 lakh for the pilot project after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).
If she manages to pull it off and demonstrate that the project is commercially viable, they will manufacture and market petroleum products generated from waste plastic. But the only question: how will the middle east handle this?
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