Plastic and waste plastic oil reproduction machine adopted

Plastic is made from naphtha=crude gasoline, which is produced in the process of petroleum refining. (See Figure 1.) By applying heat further to naphtha, the raw materials of plastic, such as ethylene-propylene (gas) and benzene (liquid) are produced. Figure 2 shows the molecules of hydrogen and carbon. Plastic materials, including polyethylene and polypropylene (solid), are made of many of these molecules combined together.

There are various kinds of plastic with wide variety of characteristics and usages, but they basically all have the chainlike molecule with carbon bond. When these chains are broken by heat, chemical agent and/or catalyser, different types of oils including gasoline, paraffin, light oil, heavy oil etc can be derived, depending on the number of carbon atom cut off (weight of the molecule), from the fractional distillation. When it’s done mainly by heat, it is called “thermal cracking,” and when the material is plastic, it is called “plastic thermal cracking oil” or “hydrocarbon oil” in broader sense. This series of process is called “oil reproduction” and the “waste plastic oil reproduction machine,” which enables people to obtain hydrocarbon oil from plastic thermal cracking oil, is produced and distributed in Japan.

While there are approximately 50 companies in Japan that make oil reproduction machines, we needed to choose the one that allows us to obtain high-quality oil in order to be used as fuels for cars and electric generators, from specific types of plastic. High-quality oil can be acquired from polyethylene (PE), polypropylene(PP) and polystyrene(PS), all of which have broad utility and are used for containers and packaging – and thus are wasted in massive amount in Nepal, too. School Oilfield Caravan requires both large and small sizes of the machine as we do demonstrations at schools and in open spaces. Our ultimate choice was the products of Blest Co., Ltd., the manufacturer based in Hiratsuka, Kanagagwa, which makes and sells the oil reproduction machines for PE, PP and PS in large and small sizes.