With the premise of the fight against pollution in the oceans, the Chilean Claudio Alvarez used plastic to turn it into fuel. It is his degree project to graduate in Automation and Robotics Engineering.
79% of plastics used ends up in landfills or in the environment, according to figures from Greenpeace. Objects made of this material have even been found at a depth of 10,000 meters.
Álvarez’s idea is to convert the already thrown away element into another useful one. indicates CHV News that the young man is the first in Chile to carry out a project of these characteristics, automated and monitored on a small scale.
“Besides, It is an alternative to what is the high price of fuels”, indicates Álvarez in his conversation with CHV Noticias.
The step by step to turn plastic into fuel
After making the model and automating it, he searched for the material: high and low density polyethylene, and polypropylene, fundamental components of plastic. Plastic is derived from materials such as cellulose, coal, natural gas, and oil.
“The condensation temperature of the gases emitted by the project is also a research topic, and they are placed at intervals. I investigated the automation materials, the sensors based on the temperatures that I was going to use, the refrigeration systems”, explained.
His father’s oven, located in the patio of his house, was put at 430 °C, melting the plastic, which became combustible.
What’s next for Claudio Álvarez’s project?
For his tutor, Francisco Ferrada, “it has been many years since I saw a major challenge of being able to see how today we see that we have plastic waste, landfills, but we don’t know what to do with it”.
“It was a process of considerable applied research for the components and for developing a prototype that allows us to show and say ‘yes, we can do it’, both in institutions and in communes and regions.
Alvarez seeks the support of a company or government entity interested in your project to disseminate it on a larger scale.