Plastic to fuel conversion from local inventor William Graham
William Graham of GrahamTek,an inventor based in the Strand, Cape Town has been working on a machine that converts plastic to oil. It’s a clean process using heat rather than incineration, with low emissions and produces a multi-fuel that can be used to power generators and machinery plus a by-product that can be turned into coal. Most plastics can be converted except PVC. This machine can also convert used tyres into fuel.
Graham’s invention has the benefit of being both scalable and mobile. It runs off its own fuel and the price per litre of fuel produced is cheaper than if you were to purchase new.
The greatest benefit is its cost effectiveness. It is a clean way to convert plastic to fuel making plastic a more valuable resource than when it is waste. Industries could develop around the collection and converting of plastic into a resource which would result in a cleaner environment for us all.
There are companies offering similar products on a large scale as a alternative to incineration that have received widespread opposition as a polluting practice.
The Blest machine from Japan, also scalable and mobile, proves too expensive for the communities that would benefit from it the most, according to WIRED.
More recently, it was announced that an airplane is due to make a flight from Sydney to London powered purely by diesel made from plastic waste by Cynar in the UK.
It’s great that there is a way to turn our plastic waste into something useful and the promise of William Graham’s invention is fantastic. We hope to see it become a viable solution to be implemented in big industry and equally important in small communities.