Municipal Waste Plastic conversion into Different Category Liquid Hydrocarbon Fuel

Abstract

Plastics were first invented in 1860, but have only been widely used in the last 30 years. Plastics are light, durable, modifiable and hygienic. Plastics are made up of long chain of molecules called polymers. Polymers are made when naturally occurring substances such as crude oil or petroleum are transformed into other substances with completely different properties. These polymers can then be made into granules, powders and liquids, becoming raw materials for plastic products. Worldwide plastics production increases 80 million tons every year. Global production and consumption of plastics have increased, from less than 5 million tons in the year 1950 to 260 million tons in the year 2007. Of those over one third is being used for packaging, while rest is used for other sectors. Plastic production has increased by more than 500% over the past 30 years. Per capita consumption of plastics will increase by more than 50% during the next decades. In the Western Europe total annual household waste generation is approximately 500 kg per capita and 750 kg per capita in the United States; 12% of this total waste is plastics. The global total waste plastic generation is estimated to be over 210 million tons per year. US alone generate 48 million tons per year (Stat data from EPA). The growth in plastics use is due to their beneficial characteristics; 21st century Economic growth making them even more suitable for a wide variety of applications, such as: food and product packaging, car manufacturing, agricultural use, housing products and etc. Because of good safety and hygiene properties for food packaging, excellent thermal and electrical insulation properties, plastics are more desirable among consumers. Low production cost, lower energy consumption and CO2 emissions during production of plastics are relatively lower than making alternative materials, such as glass, metals and etc. Yet for all their advantages, plastics have a considerable downside in terms of their environmental impact. Plastic production requires large amounts of resources, primarily fossil fuels and 8% of the world’s annual oil production is used in the production of plastics. Potentially harmful chemicals are added as stabilizers or colorants. Many of these have not undergone environmental risk assessment and their impact on human health and environment is currently uncertain. Worldwide municipal sites like shops or malls had the largest proportion of plastic rubbish items. Ocean soup swirling the debris of plastics trash in the Pacific Ocean has now grown to a size that is twice as large as the continental US. In 2006, 11.5 million of tons of plastics were wasted in the landfill. These types of disposal of the waste plastics release toxic gas; which has negative impact on environment.