Uflex pyrolysis – plastics to fuel
Uflex recently commissioned its new pyrolysis plant at its Noida packaging division. The new pyrolysis plant's two reactors tin convert 6 tons of plastic waste material to fuel a day, which generates nearly 3,000 liters of fuel. This is the only pyrolysis plant in the whole of North India while in that location are a few in Maharashtra.
Pyrolysis converts waste product materials to fuel at high temperatures in an inert atmosphere. Uflex daily consumes most 100 metric tons (≈ 90,000 liters) of fuel to run its plants in Noida for which it purchases gas and low sulphur heavy stock oil to run generators, boilers and other energy-consuming processes.
"Through pyrolysis, i has the option to eliminate a large clamper of plastic waste. Usually, plastics throughout the state are being wasted. There is a dire demand to segregate and collect plastic waste systematically, and make sure it is utilized efficiently," says SS Parmar, senior vice president of the Energy Grouping at Uflex.
He adds, "In this procedure, one may witness the conversion of plastic waste into three forms of fuel, i in each state of matter. I of the forms is lite distillate oil (LDO), which can be used in furnaces, boilers and diesel engines. The second is hydrocarbon gas, an extremely useful production for running the banality inside the pyrolysis constitute. And if ane produces extra gas, it can exist useful for other processes as well. For instance, we apply it in the multi-stage evaporation plant within our premises."
In this plant, the loftier total dissolved solids (TDS), which may include minerals, salts, metals, cations or anions in the water used for waste treatment, need to exist vaporized. The vaporization process takes place in a low vacuum atmosphere. The heat required to vaporize the particles is provided by a boiler, which uses the surplus gas emitted at the end of the pyrolysis process.
"The third product of pyrolysis is carbon black, which is also a fuel with a calorific value similar to coal. 1 may burn it in PET coke fired steam boilers, firewood boilers or other like boilers only like any other solid fuel. Thus at the end of the process, the entire waste is converted to three forms of fuel," Parmar explains.
Currently, Uflex generates fuel from half dozen tons of plastic waste material daily using ii reactors – each having a capacity to convert 3 tons of plastic waste daily. It plans to install more reactors as and when an increment in chapters is needed.
"I would also like to shed some light on the upper-case letter cost which is an important aspect in these kinds of ventures. Uflex has spent almost Rs. 5 crores to set up this unit of measurement. If in case nosotros plan to increase the chapters in near time to come, we will invest more in this found," Parmar shares.
Conversion of plastics to fuel
At the Uflex pyrolysis plant, tons of mixed plastic are fed into the shredder which cuts long strips or sheets of plastic to small pieces. The resultant is then fed into ii silos. Each of the silos is connected to blowers which feed the plastic material to an air lock system. The air lock system is to eliminate the presence of whatever traces of oxygen within the setup as the conversion process must be anaerobic. The air lock system is equipped with a piston, which compresses the waste and feeds information technology into a reactor.
The actual conversion of solid waste material into three forms of fuels takes identify inside the reactor which is fitted with a hot air generator (HAG). Initially LPG fired, the HAG is switched to the apply of either gas, LPG or HSG oil. The idea of having ii reactors is to ensure a continuous process and avert batch production. The material afterwards passing through the air-lock, piston-fed organization is sent to the reactor where with the aid of the HAG equally a heat source, the entire material is converted to a semi-finished class. Next, the material is pushed into the second reactor where information technology is converted to a fully finished form and the iii same forms of fuel are extracted – liquid distillate oil (LDO), hydrocarbon gas and carbon black.
Uflex'southward plastic recycling plant
At the plastic recycling plant in Noida, Uflex recycles close to half-dozen tons of plastics each day. Uflex has placed two machines for recycling plastics such every bit PP, PE, BOPP, and BOPET among others. The company collects plastic waste from its press and lamination lines and its slitting and rewinding unit within its packaging division.
In the first car, the collected raw material is fed into a conveyor. The belt feeds the waste product to the shredder which breaks the materials to modest pieces. The shredded fabric is compatibilised in a compactor. The purpose of the compatibiliser is to maintain a homogeneous rheology which is a primary requirement for extruding the mixed plastics in a recycling system. The compacted textile is fed into a organisation chosen the force feeding screw, which supplies the shredded cloth into the extruder. The extruder is where the plastic waste matter is melted and mixed to exist shaped into long strands that are cooled in a water tank. The cooled strands are then passed through an air shower which evaporates the moisture. The dry strands are fed into a pelletizer which cuts them into granules.
The 2nd auto'southward conveyor feeds plastic waste into the cutter compactor. The densified shreds get into the extruder, tangentially connected to the cutter compactor. These are passed through an automatic screen changer which filters the extruded waste for size and impurities. Later on filtration, the lump is passed through a de-gasser where all the unwanted volatile gasses from the melt are removed. All the gasses extracted by de-gassing pass through a narrow channel and are mixed with water, which is further treated in the water treatment plant of the pyrolysis reactor (the multi-stage evaporation constitute). This melt after de-gassing is fed into the die face cutter which cuts the cook into a 2d set of granules.
Commenting on the recycling plant Jeevaraj Pillai, joint president of Packaging & New Product Development at Uflex says, "This is a very proficient concept; one that our country needs desperately because in other countries there are alternate solutions available. In western countries, due to good littering habits, establishing a systematic collection and processing of waste matter is easier- unlike in ours. A cultural change is required in our land which isn't possible in a short span of fourth dimension.
"That is the reason why we have proposed a like organisation to the 1 nosotros accept at our plant to the Noida Potency. We have told them that nosotros will invest shut to Rs. 100 crores, provided they give us the country for collection and recycling of waste on a large scale. For this projection, we would crave at least ten acres of land. Projects such every bit these are self-sustaining. It is a business model where we cannot lose money. This project will be a split entity which will survive on its ain revenue. We program to rope in new partners and take this projection to tier-2 and -3 cities also."
Recently, Nestle India has also come with a new recycling thought in which it is collecting Maggi noodle pouches from consumers to whom information technology rewards a bundle of noodles. The Uflex team believes that such initiatives are necessary and an important sign of users indicating their responsibility in providing sustainable packaging to protect the surroundings.
Source: https://packagingsouthasia.com/type-of-article/industry-news/uflex-pyrolysis-plastics-to-fuel/
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