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Directory:Polymer Energy LLC
The Polymer Energy™ system turns waste plastic into energy. It is designed to primarily process polyolefins i.e. polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
The Polymer Energy™ system is robust by design, and can easily handle plastic that is contaminated with other kinds of waste such as metals, glass, dirt, water, etc. The system can tolerate up to 30% of other waste in the input plastic waste stream. As a result, a key advantage of this process is that the plastic wastes do not need to be pre-sorted, cleaned or dried prior to processing, which in turn significantly reduces the overall cost of operation.
How it Works
Polymer Energy™ offers a viable, economical and environmentally responsible alternative to current methods of recycling and disposal of plastic waste. The Polymer Energy™ system uses catalytic pyrolysis to efficiently convert plastics (primarily polyolefins) into crude oil.
Unit costs as well as energy costs, e.g. cents/kw-h, including factors such as installation, maintenance, decommissioning; relative to other renewable technologies as well as relative to conventional energy products.
- The Polymer Energy™ system is modular in design. Each module typically produces 775 litres of crude oil for every ton of plastic waste processed. This assumes highly contaminated plastics waste. A single module can process between 250 to 400 tons of plastics waste per month. The throughput capacity is directly dependant upon the quality of the input plastics waste. The system is designed to be a self-cleaning process and any contaminants in the input plastic waste stream are automatically removed from the system as an ash by-product. This ash by-product can be safetly disposed off in a landfill.
- The plastic waste does not need to pre-sorted or cleaned prior to processing with the Polymer Energy™ system. In fact, one of the key advantages of our system is that the process can tolerate high amounts (up to 30% of the mix) of other contaminants in the input plastics waste stream. As a result, the operator can save on the cost of pre-sorting and cleaning, thus reducing the total cost of operation.
- The Polymer Energy™ system is very robust by design and can easily process typical plastic waste such as used agricultural/mulch film, silage wrap and other soiled agricultural plastics, metallized plastics, plastic laminates, printed plastics, wet plastic byproducts and even heavily recycled plastics. The non-plastic contaminants are converted into ash which is automatically removed from the system during the normal cleaning cycle of the system.
- The output crude oil is high-grade and can be further processed in a refinery or used to power low-rpm machines such as electric generation turbines.
- Typically the Polymer Energy™ system can process plastics waste with up to 30% of the following contaminants; mineral impurities such as sand, dirt, etc., impurities such as glass, small metal parts, etc., impurities such as cellulose, clothing, etc., water, oil residue.
This technology has won several international environmental awards, including being selected as one of the top 10 technologies for environmental protection by the European Environmental Press.
- US0 7285186 - Zbigniew Tokarz, Osiedle Sloneczne 13 m 21, 97-400 Belchatow (Poland)
USPTO Application #: 20070213572
Company: Polymer Energy, LLC
Polymer Energy, LLC. is a joint venture between Northern Technologies, a leading materials science company, and Zbigniew Tokarz, the inventor of this innovative technology. This proprietary and patent-protected technology is marketed under the T-Technology brand in Europe and under the Polymer Energy™ brand elsewhere in the world.
Inventor: Zbigniew Tokarz
- from plastic waste (Biodegradable Plastics; April 15, 2008)
See Discussion page
Polymer Energy, LLC
4201 Woodland Road, P.O. Box 69
Circle Pines, MN 55014 U.S.A.
Phone: +1 (763) 225-6907
Fax: +1 (763) 225-6645
- Directory:Plastic and Energy
- Directory:Waste to Energy