Sustainable Development Goals
Organizations Involved:
BDC, EDC, Dow Chemical, Green Capital, Newalta, GVRD, and several local recyclers
Services:
Design & Engineering, Due Diligence, Supply Chain Management, Component Supply
The Challenge:
The plastic industry is one of the world's largest oil consumers; over five million barrels daily are used to create hundreds of different polymers for consumers and industry. Plastics are cheap, lightweight, and highly versatile and have found their way into almost every product imaginable. Often designed for single use, these products will be disposed of in landfills and other domestic and commercial wastes. Despite increased recycling efforts, we still incinerate more plastic than we recycle, and even then, 80% of the world's plastic still goes to landfills.
Like many other North American locations, the Greater Vancouver Regional District of British Columbia seeks sustainable long-term solutions to waste management problems. Although some of the easier-to-recycle and in-demand polymers such as polyethylene and PET are baled and usually sent to the Far East for cheap processing, many other plastics such as silage wrap, multi-layer films or laminates, contaminated plastics, industrial waste, and the residual plastic waste from previous recycling operations are destined for landfill. There is currently no alternative sustainable use for these mixed waste plastics. Considering the amount of oil within them, there is a significant global opportunity to recover this value.
The Solution:
Klean Industries designs and develops facilities that convert waste plastics into high-quality oils. The systems use a continuous liquefaction technology that indirectly heats the plastic waste and a unique catalytic reaction to generate hydrocarbon gases. These are then cooled and condensed to produce ASTM-spec diesel and a proprietary blend of heating fuel. These oils exceed regulatory standards and can be used in diesel engines, trucks, buses, trains, boats, heavy equipment, and generators without engine modification. A Klean plant can produce approximately 950 liters of high-grade diesel fuel from each tonne of waste plastic. Different polymers can be processed together without sorting, and typical contaminants such as grit, paper, metal, food residue, and oils do not need to be removed before treatment. The advanced system can take high loads of PVC, PET, and the ideal polyolefin plastics without damaging the reactor or producing high emissions.
The technology originates from Japan and has operated commercially for over twenty years. Now, dozens of reference facilities have the capacity to produce fuels at a rate of over five hundred liters per hour. Klean's distillate fuel is greener than virgin fuels due to its reduced carbon footprint, but it is also a superior product due to its cleaner-burning properties and high cetane rating.
Klean is planning to establish the first plastic-to-diesel facility in British Columbia. The company claims the facility will have a low visual and environmental impact, as emissions levels are just a fraction of those permitted. The company already has agreements to sell fuel products locally. It has well-established relationships within the British Columbia fuel retailing and plastic recycling industry, providing feedstock and off-take opportunities.
Klean's new reactors are more proven, energy-efficient, and inherently safer than traditional process equipment but have low operational costs and minimal maintenance. Klean plans to establish up to fifteen similar facilities across North America and Europe and is actively discussing opportunities with several organizations that currently dispose of large volumes of plastic suitable to the KleanFuel process on a build, own, and operate joint venture and partnership basis.
The Outcome:
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