this is the greatest thing ever

[rone]

devonapple brought to my attention this little device that, by judicious application of microwaves, extracts oil and gas from plastics, rubber, and just about anything that has a hydrocarbon base, and leaves a remainder of pure carbon.  The video linked therein is a mediocre production, but it's still impressive.

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

What about the effect of plastic that degrades in the landfill and poisons the water table? And not all of that oil is going to be burned; it can be turned into plastic again, say.

[mskala.livejournal.com]

What about the effect of plastic that degrades in the landfill and poisons the water table?

That's obviously not a good thing if it happens - but with many popular types of plastic (e.g. LDPE and HDPE) I don't think it actually happens. There's not much polyethylene that can turn toxic; it's just straight hydrocarbons. A big part of the objection to plastic is that it doesn't degrade. The silver lining is that that makes plastic a carbon sink.

And not all of that oil is going to be burned; it can be turned into plastic again, say.

If more than zero is burned, it increases that total amount of oil that can be burned for a given amount pumped out of the ground; and if you imagine a simplistic model where x% of all oil (from both sources) gets burned and the rest is made into plastic, all of which eventually gets turned into oil, then for any x greater than zero, all oil will eventually end up getting burned - because that's the only way oil leaves the system.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for studying this kind of invention. Having more knowledge is a good thing. But I hope it won't lead to a wonderful new era of plentiful oil, because it sure seems like we need ways to stop burning oil, not ways to be able to burn more.

Coal is a complicating factor. I wonder if we can somehow make plastic out of coal?