A research project at the Giessen -Friedberg University of Applied Sciences is investigating the production of fuels from animal fat. This initiative, which has attracted considerable public attention, is financially supported by the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF). As a byproduct of the pilot-scale investigations, a new source of oil has been discovered: plastic waste.
“The oil-producing process also works with old plastics – from toothpaste tubes to the casings of discarded electrical appliances,” reveals project manager Prof. Dr. Ernst Stadlbauer from the FH Laboratory for Waste Management Technology. The latest discovery by project team members Sebastian Bojanowski, Sajjad Hossein, Astrid Fiedler, Claudia Steller, Rebekka Sauer, and Lisa Beermann is also generating strong interest at the university's industrial partner: “The Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act comes into force on March 24th. This opens up a completely new field of application for our patented reactor technology, in addition to sewage sludge and used cooking oil,” says Olaf Grimmel of W+F Grimmel Wassertechnik. Bernhard Jehle, Managing Director of the waste management company ZM Elektronik Recycling GmbH in Heuchelheim, sees new alternatives for closing material cycles: “This process offers entirely new possibilities for raw material recycling of plastics. The resulting plastic waste can be given a new life cycle.”
To make the process more widely known and understandable to the public, a film entitled "Oil from Waste" was produced in collaboration with students Dorina Benz and Martin Kosa from the Technical Communication and Multimedia Documentation programme at the University of Applied Sciences. It will soon be broadcast on the open channel of the city of Giessen . The process will be presented to the professional community at Achema in Frankfurt from May 15 to 19, 2006, at the joint stand of Hessian universities. Achema is the world's largest trade fair for chemical process engineering and equipment manufacturing.
Special catalysts are used to extract oil from plastic waste. These catalysts can selectively break down the long carbon chains of the plastics at specific points at temperatures of around 350–400 degrees Celsius. The project team coined the term "thermocatalytic cracking" for this process. The developed reactor brings the shredded plastic waste and the highly effective catalysts into close contact. It is patented under the name "thermocatalytic loop reactor." The best oils are obtained from plastic waste based on polyethylene and polypropylene. The yield is 80–90 percent. Approximately 1,000 liters of oil are extracted from 1,000 kilograms of waste. Polystyrene, polycarbonate, and the versatile PET beverage bottle can also be used. Around five million tons of plastics are generated annually in Germany.