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   Gold/Mining/EnergyJBII - The Secret Catalyst Turns Plastics into Oil


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From: scion7/24/2015 9:55:31 AM
   of 704
 
Procter & Gamble to use more recycled plastic

By Jim Johnson, Plastics News
Posted 24 July 2015
prw.com

Household product giant Procter & Gamble expects to use more recycled plastic in more fabric care product packaging – in some cases going from zero to 50% – in a move that will affect hundreds of millions of containers.

And the company is liaising with plastic recyclers around the world to push use even higher.

The decision will affect an expected 230 million HDPE and PET bottles annually starting next year, the US-based company said. Brands, primarily sold in Europe, such as Ariel, Dash, Lenor and Unstopables, all are covered by the increase.

The global consumer packaged goods giant already uses some recycled content in packaging for some of the affected brands, but others will see recycled plastics for the very first time.

The push toward using more recycled plastics in the company’s fabric care unit is part of a larger overall environmental effort by the company that also includes the announced end of phosphates in detergents.

“We’re making huge steps in improving the sustainability of our products,” the firm said. “We were already using PCR [post-consumer resin] in a number of our bottles and this increase we are going a step further.

“This increase alone will take Lenor bottles from 0 to 50% PCR, Unstopables will go from 35% PCR to 50%, and Ariel, Dash, Simply, Ace, Bold and others will go from 0 to 25%.”

Gianni Siserani, group president of global fabric and home care for P&G, said the company was looking for more recycled plastics suppliers around the world to provide more material.

“This will allow us to increase the amount of recycled plastic in more brands and geographies,” he said.

Accounting for the increase in recycled content, the company said it expected to use a total of 7.6 million pounds (3.4 million kg) of recycled plastic in the 230 million bottles.

Brands covered under the latest announcement include the Unstopables line of products that are sold in both the UK and North America, where P&G said it has been using post-consumer content for more than a quarter of a century.

“In terms of the number of bottles currently containing PRC, we use PCR in many categories including laundry detergents, fabric softeners, hard surface cleaners, and others in North America and the bottles contain at least 25% PCR,” a P&G spokesman said.

“This has been the case for over 25 years. We are very excited to announce the increase in PCR use in North America as well as the expansion of PCR in Europe.”

P&G said it planned to roll out the increased recycled content in different markets as soon as possible rather than waiting for a unified introduction in every market at once, allowing for the benefits of using recycled plastics to be realised as soon as possible.

The 230 million containers impacted by the additional recycled content would, if laid end-to-end, stretch from the North Pole to the South Pole, it added.

prw.com

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From: donpat7/8/2016 8:20:54 AM
   of 704
 
Hey Rawnoc, I'm as bullish as it gets on the prospects here.

You?

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To: donpat who wrote (691)11/8/2016 9:52:24 AM
From: donpat
   of 704
 
I guess not.

Licking wounds??

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To: Rawnoc who wrote (686)12/10/2016 1:19:05 PM
From: donpat
   of 704
 
Take a hike!

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To: Rawnoc who wrote (187)3/21/2017 12:33:34 PM
From: donpat
   of 704
 
Rock-Tenn??

Who dat???

Where dey??

Marketing is key.

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From: donpat4/24/2017 1:49:12 PM
   of 704
 
Plastic eaten by moth larvae at a great rate.

Now, can we turn those larvae into oil - Plastic to larvae to oil? Or do what the larvae do commercially with their enzyme?

I'm betting $60,000,000 will do the trick!

Nature, once again, is way ahead of us!!

Ref:
Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting biodegradable solution to plastic pollution

April 24, 2017


Wax worm specimens in a Petri dish. Credit: César Hernández/CSIC

Scientists have found that a caterpillar commercially bred for fishing bait has the ability to biodegrade polyethylene: one of the toughest and most used plastics, frequently found clogging up landfill sites in the form of plastic shopping bags.

The wax worm, the larvae of the common insect Galleria mellonella, or greater wax moth, is a scourge of beehives across Europe. In the wild, the worms live as parasites in bee colonies. Wax moths lay their eggs inside hives where the worms hatch and grow on beeswax - hence the name.

A chance discovery occurred when one of the scientific team, Federica Bertocchini, an amateur beekeeper, was removing the parasitic pests from the honeycombs in her hives. The worms were temporarily kept in a typical plastic shopping bag that became riddled with holes.

Bertocchini, from the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria (CSIC), Spain, collaborated with colleagues Paolo Bombelli and Christopher Howe at the University of Cambridge's Department of Biochemistry to conduct a timed experiment.

Around a hundred wax worms were exposed to a plastic bag from a UK supermarket. Holes started to appear after just 40 minutes, and after 12 hours there was a reduction in plastic mass of 92mg from the bag.

Scientists say that the degradation rate is extremely fast compared to other recent discoveries, such as bacteria reported last year to biodegrade some plastics at a rate of just 0.13mg a day.


Plastic biodegraded by 10 worms in 30 minutes. Credit: César Hernández/CSIC

"If a single enzyme is responsible for this chemical process, its reproduction on a large scale using biotechnological methods should be achievable," said Cambridge's Paolo Bombelli, first author of the study published today in the journal Current Biology.

"This discovery could be an important tool for helping to get rid of the polyethylene plastic waste accumulated in landfill sites and oceans."

Polyethylene is largely used in packaging, and accounts for 40% of total demand for plastic products across Europe - where up to 38% of plastic is discarded in landfills. People around the world use around a trillion plastic bags every single year.

Generally speaking, plastic is highly resistant to breaking down, and even when it does the smaller pieces choke up ecosystems without degrading. The environmental toll is a heavy one.

Yet nature may provide an answer. The beeswax on which wax worms grow is composed of a highly diverse mixture of lipid compounds: building block molecules of living cells, including fats, oils and some hormones.

While the molecular detail of wax biodegradation requires further investigation, the researchers say it is likely that digesting beeswax and polyethylene involves breaking similar types of chemical bonds.


A close-up of wax worm next to biodegraded holes in a polyethylene plastic shopping bag from a UK supermarket as used in the experiment. Credit: Paolo Bombelli"Wax is a polymer, a sort of 'natural plastic,' and has a chemical structure not dissimilar to polyethylene," said CSIC's Bertocchini, the study's lead author.

The researchers conducted spectroscopic analysis to show the chemical bonds in the plastic were breaking. The analysis showed the worms transformed the polyethylene into ethylene glycol, representing un-bonded 'monomer' molecules.

To confirm it wasn't just the chewing mechanism of the caterpillars degrading the plastic, the team mashed up some of the worms and smeared them on polyethylene bags, with similar results.

"The caterpillars are not just eating the plastic without modifying its chemical make-up. We showed that the polymer chains in polyethylene plastic are actually broken by the wax worms," said Bombelli.

"The caterpillar produces something that breaks the chemical bond, perhaps in its salivary glands or a symbiotic bacteria in its gut. The next steps for us will be to try and identify the molecular processes in this reaction and see if we can isolate the enzyme responsible."

As the molecular details of the process become known, the researchers say it could be used to devise a biotechnological solution on an industrial scale for managing polyethylene waste.

Added Bertocchini: "We are planning to implement this finding into a viable way to get rid of plastic waste, working towards a solution to save our oceans, rivers, and all the environment from the unavoidable consequences of plastic accumulation."

Explore further: Gut bacteria from a worm can degrade plastic

More information:
cell.com

Journal reference: Current Biology

Provided by: University of Cambridge

Read more at: phys.org

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From: donpat12/18/2017 2:35:09 PM
   of 704
 
At less than 2¢, the bulls are full of BS!

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From: donpat1/9/2018 4:59:37 PM
   of 704
 
Who needs oil???!!!

Battery technology allows 700-mile range on one-minute charge: Henrik Fisker

Fox Business Videos•January 9, 2018

Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker on the company's electric car battery technology.

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/battery-technology-allows-700-mile-160435740.html

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To: donpat who wrote (697)2/18/2020 1:30:13 PM
From: Buckey
   of 704
 
IHUB lifted my ban 3648 days or 4 days short of ten years LOL

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From: scion1/24/2021 10:34:32 AM
   of 704
 
Plastic makers bet on new waste recovery technologies

Chemical recycling has potential to treat wider spectrum of synthetic rubbish

Michael Pooler JANUARY 22 2021
ft.com


Plastic rubbish is seen near a dam’s hydroelectric plant on Potpecko lake, Serbia. Although in its infancy, chemical recycling has the potential, if widely rolled out, to reduce the amount of discarded plastic that ends up buried, incinerated or littering the world’s oceans © Branko Filipovic/Reuters

For an idea of one way the chemicals industry intends to confront one of the worst environmental scourges of our age, consider the humble Muller yoghurt pot.

A version of the German dairy brand’s distinctive twin-cup container was produced in small demonstration quantities, with one key difference.

Half of the polystyrene, supplied by the petrochemicals group Ineos, came from an innovative kind of recycling technique heralded as a means to help tackle the plastic crisis.

It is among a clutch of industrial processes under development that turn plastic waste into basic chemicals or oils, which can then provide the raw materials for new polymers.

With chemical recycling, you can recreate the raw materials and create virgin plastics with the same characteristics of the normal plastic. You can basically produce the whole range of polymers.

Backers say these technologies are capable of treating a wider spectrum of plastic rubbish and producing higher quality material than conventional recovery methods.

Although in its infancy, chemical recycling has the potential, if widely rolled out, to reduce the amount of discarded plastic that ends up buried, incinerated or littering the world’s oceans.

“It basically takes a waste plastic and unzips it back to its original feedstock or components,” said Jim Becker, vice-president of polymers and sustainability at Chevron Phillips Chemical.

The company recently became the first in the US to produce on a commercial scale chemically recycled polyethylene, the most common plastic resin, which goes into carrier bags and shrink film. It now has a goal to produce 1bn pounds (454,000 tonnes) of the recycled substance annually by 2030.



Other major chemicals manufacturers such as Total, Saudi Arabia’s Sabic and BASF are throwing their weight behind similar initiatives, while investors are piling into start-ups in the nascent field.

Investments worth $4.3bn for projects to convert plastic trash into new polymers or fuel have been announced in the US alone since 2017, according to the American Chemistry Council.

The developments coincide with pledges by big consumer goods brands to slash the amount of ‘virgin’ plastics, newly created from hydrocarbons, in their packaging. This will require supplies of recycled content to at least triple by 2030, according to Closed Loop Partners, an investment firm with about $250m of assets under management.

Jessica Stewart, of Systemiq, a sustainability consulting and investment company, said that many corporate and government targets can only be met with traditional mechanical recycling alongside newer chemical routes. But, she added, there were still many questions hanging over the latter.

“The system is immature and some stakeholders remain very sceptical because of the technical, economic and environmental performance, which just isn’t proven at scale yet”.

In conventional mechanical recycling, plastic is cleaned, shredded, melted and reformed as pellets. However, the grades produced are usually of a lower quality, with potential contamination and impurities often making them unsuitable for contact with food.

Chemical recycling will have to prove competitive during times of low crude prices to make a serious dent into the roughly 350m tonnes of plastic churned out globally each year. © SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
A single piece of plastic can normally only go through the process up to a few times. But many items are not recyclable this way, for economic or technical reasons.

Emerging chemical or “advanced” recycling processes purport to overcome these limitations.

“With chemical recycling, you can recreate the raw materials and create virgin plastics with the same characteristics of the normal plastic. You can basically produce the whole range of polymers,” said Daniele Ferrari, chief executive of Versalis, a subsidiary of Italian oil and gas company Eni, which is building a demonstration facility.

To make a serious dent into the roughly 350m tonnes of plastic churned out globally each year, though, it will have to prove competitive during times of low crude prices like at present. Cheaper oil and natural gas lower one of the main input costs for plastic.



While many of the underlying technologies and equipment in chemical recycling are not new, they are being repurposed to be integrated into existing chemicals production infrastructure.

Plastic Energy, a start-up that has raised €60m in funding, says it has refined the quality, purification and energy efficiency of pyrolysis, an established method for generating fuel from solid waste by applying heat in the absence of oxygen.

The UK-based company runs two commercial-scale plants in Spain and plans to build 10 facilities by 2025, including at sites owned by Total in France and Sabic in the Netherlands.

Its reactors are fed with a mixture of low-quality refuse and are able to take mixed materials that mechanical recycling cannot, like metallic-lined crisp packets. Up to three-quarters of the output is a mix of hydrocarbon oils that can replace naphtha, a key feedstock for petrochemical plants that produce the building blocks for plastics.

Campaigners view novel waste treatments as a distraction from the root of the plastic problem: overproduction of packaging. © Plastic Energy
“There’s still a need for sortation, however it’s less fine than mechanical recycling given we don’t have to separate by polymers and colours,” said Cloé Ragot, head of policy and sustainability at Plastic Energy.

Ineos, which is teaming up with partners to build two pilot facilities in the US and Europe, says the production of polystyrene by chemical recycling slashes greenhouse gas emissions by half.

Yet for all the hype, there remain many doubters. With the petrochemicals industry planning to invest $400bn into new capacity over five years, according to climate think-tank Carbon Tracker, campaigners view these novel waste treatments as a distraction from the root of the problem: overproduction of packaging.

Climate Capital

Where climate change meets business, markets and politics. Explore the FT’s coverage here

Certain investors have demonstrated incredulity too, as shown when one company with claims of a breakthrough technology came under attack from a short seller in October.

Hindenburg Research, which last year also launched a broadside against hydrogen truck start-up Nikola, described Nasdaq-quoted Loop Industries as “smoke and mirrors with no viable technology”.

Loop said the report contained factual inaccuracies, with assertions that were unfounded or based on an older version of its technology. But its stock fell sharply after the report.

If chemical recycling is to play a role in redeeming plastic’s dirty reputation, policymakers and the public will also need convincing.

ft.com

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