{"id":15107,"date":"2021-10-20T11:47:54","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T10:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=15107"},"modified":"2021-10-20T12:14:14","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T11:14:14","slug":"converting-biomass-solid-waste-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/converting-biomass-solid-waste-fuels\/15107\/","title":{"rendered":"Going beyond fossil fuels: converting biomass and solid waste into fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"
As the price of CO2<\/sub> emissions continue to rise sharply, forerunner companies are already creating their decarbonisation strategies and looking for alternative feedstocks. Lignocellulose and municipal solid waste as well as waste plastics are new possibilities for sustainable, low carbon transportation fuels and other chemicals. All of them are critically needed to secure supply of crucial materials.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pyrolysis and gasification, the main technologies of chemical recycling, allow us to recycle plastic waste which is otherwise incinerated or sent to landfill. The advantage of chemical recycling is that it can be used for mixed post-consumer plastic waste streams \u2013 when mechanical recycling is not an option.<\/p>\n With these recycling processes, a new feedstock avenue is opened to the petrochemical industry. The use of plastic waste as an alternative feedstock represents a completely new business opportunity.<\/p>\n Plastic waste is still an untapped resource for industries. Although plastic packaging waste recycling rate in Europe is already nearly 40%, we must look for new recycling alternatives.1<\/sup><\/p>\n In Europe, approximately 30 million tons of post-consumer plastic waste was collected in 2018, of which 12 million tons was used for energy recovery and approximately 7.2 million tons was sent to landfill.<\/p>\n \u201cIdeally, the plastic we left uncollected, landfilled, or burned could be used as feedstock for the industry to make various products,\u201d says Senior Scientist Muhammad Saad Qureshi from VTT.<\/p>\n During pyrolysis, impurities are removed from the plastic waste and is converted into valuable feedstock for oil refineries and petrochemical plants for making fuels, chemicals or plastics for example.<\/p>\n Pyrolysis involves using heat and anoxic conditions to break down plastic waste into valuable hydrocarbons in the form of liquid, waxes, and gases.<\/p>\n Gasification is another method of chemical recycling. The main product of gasification is synthesis gas (syngas, CO and H2) which can be further processed into a variety of final products like gasoline, diesel, methanol, synthetic methane and chemicals.<\/p>\nPyrolysis and gasification of plastic waste<\/h3>\n