Converting plastic to oil
AUG 24, 2009
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.023621
“Edmunds.com : Moinuddin Sarker says that his company, Natural State Research , has developed a way to turn waste plastic into finished oil products for a final cost of less than $1 a gallon.The process is as simple as heating up the plastic until it becomes vapor, and then letting it condense back into liquid—the way water droplets condense on the cover of a pot of boiling water.It works because both plastic and oil are made up of carbon molecules, only plastics’ molecules are long chains called polymers. Breaking the bonds in the chains, Sarker said, results in smaller carbon-based molecules—the basis for fuels. Editor’s Note: 12/21/2009 Edmunds has updated their news article with the following comment: “It has come to our attention that the claims expressed by Moinuddin Sarker might not be rooted in good science.”
© 2009 American Institute of Physics
