Ringier AG features P2O to large Asian & Middle Eastern audience

Ringier AG is the largest media group in Switzerland with 176 years of history. In Asia, the group is represented by Hong Kong-based Ringier Trade Media Ltd. As one of the pioneers in China, Asia and the Middle East, Ringier Trade Media has been providing industrial leaders with the technological information, solutions and applications they need to improve their manufacturing and marketing capability. Its multiple channels in print, digital, online and events have been successfully facilitating direct communication links between buyers and sellers within Asia, and between Asia and the rest of the world to the mutual benefits of all parties.

Ringier hosts high level technical and business conferences every year bringing industry leaders together for information exchange and networking opportunities (visit www.ringierevents.com)for the full conference schedule). Ringier’s annual Technology Innovation Awards give recognition to those who have made the most significant contributions for the advancement of the industry.
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Ringier Trade Media, a prominent web site providing Essential Trade Multimedia for China, Asia & the Middle East posted this report on JBI's P2O process:

"Enviromental concerns created urgent demand for measures to ensure ecological balance and sustainability. Recycling, or the process of recovering scraps and reprocessing them into new useful products, has thus become an important issue that has tremendous impact on the manufacturer. In the plastics industry today, the ban on plastic bags and urgent need to properly discard plastic products such as PET bottles, are trends that have affected the directions of the industry.

Recycling plastic materials requires special techniques and equipment due to the complex composition of polymers. Also, the use of additives and dyes has made it challenging, and expensive to recycle plastics.

Sorting system for various plastic types

The Society of Plastics Industry has developed the Plastic Identification Code (PIC) which serves as the basis for sorting plastics prior to recycling. In some countries, manufacturers of plastic products are required to use PIC labels on their products. Plastic materials are usually separated by color and then shredded after which these undergo processes to remove impurities. The material is then melted and pelletized for processing into other products.

The easiest plastics to recycle are those made of PETE which are assigned the number 1. Once processed, these can be turned into soft drink, water and salad dressing bottles; peanut butter and jam jars, among others. Table 1 shows the PIC and the applications of recycled plastic materials.

There are now a growing number of recycling processes--among them monomer recycling method thermal depolymerisation, heat compression--which are able to solve some of the challenges in reprocessing. Also, a number of companies and organizations have taken recycling a step further with new solutions that are expected to cost-efficiently transform waste into useful products.

Recent developments in recycling

One interesting recycling solution is the process developed by US-based JBI, Inc. JBI's President/CEO, John Bordynuik, has been in the business of recovering planetary and sensor data from old magnetic media for various government and institutional archives for more than 20 years, amassing the world's largest solution and algorithm archive.

JBI, Inc. released the results of tests conducted by IsleChem, a New York-based, state-certified laboratory, in validating JBI's Plastic2Oil (P2O) process. Since December 2009, IsleChem has conducted extensive chemical, analytical and process engineering testing for JBI's P2O technology on a diversified range of plastic feedstocks. A wide variety of plastics were tested and all produced residue of only about 1%, which is allowed in landfills.

Islechem has performed more than 40 small scale runs of various multicolored, mixed plastic feedstocks through the process. After analyzing the energy consumption, residue, offgas, and material balance in the process, Islechem has determined JBI's P2O process to be repeatable and scalable. In addition to the confirmed validity of the overall process, Islechem has provided the following statistics regarding the fuel product composition and process emissions: JBI's P2O solution is repeatable and scalable; approximately 85-90% of the hydrocarbon composition in the feedstock is converted into a "near diesel" fuel; approximately 8% of the hydrocarbon composition in the feedstock is converted to a usable off gas much like natural gas; approximately 1% of the feedstock remains in the processor as a residue; the analyzed residue contains various metals from coloring agents and other plastic additives that were originally in the feedstock plastic and a small amount of carbon; the fuel product was analysed with a gas chromatograph and the chromatogram is similar in many respects to diesel fuel; the fuel product contains only trace amounts of sulphur and the centane number exceeds 40; the residue does not appear to contain any highly toxic or difficult to dispose of components; there is no evidence of air toxins in the emissions; and the energy balance of the process is positive, that is, more energy value is produced than is consumed by the process.

The "near diesel" fuel is diesel with some extra light fuel fractions (gasoline range fuel). The extra gasoline can be separated at the company's fuel blending site or our fuel can be sold to a refinery. CEO John Bordynuik stated, "It takes energy to produce energy. The key is to get more energy from the final product than it takes to make it. Our process has a high positive energy balance of 2.0 while gasoline from crude has a negative energy balance of 0.81.Our fuel is light, flows like diesel and is of high quality."

In a paper published in the American Chemical Society journal, Macromolecules, scientists from IBM and Stanford University detailed discoveries that could lead to the development of new types of biodegradable, biocompatible plastics. The result of a multi-year research effort, the breakthrough also could lead to a new recycling process that has the potential to significantly increase the ability to recycle and reuse common PET and plant-based plastics in the future. The project may have sustainability implications across a wide range of industries including biodegradable plastics, plastics recycling, healthcare and microelectronics.

"We're exploring new methods of applying technology and our expertise in materials science to create a sustainable, environmentally sound future," said Ms. Josephine Cheng, IBM Fellow and vice president, IBM Research - Almaden. "The development of new families of organic catalysts brings more versatility to green chemistry and opens the door for novel applications, such as making biodegradable plastics, improving the recycling process and drug delivery."

Disposable plastic bottles are among the most vexing environmental challenges. More than 13 billion plastic bottles are disposed of each year. While plastics are recyclable, the resulting materials are limited to "second generation reuse" only. This means the materials made from recycled plastic bottles are disposed in landfills. The IBM-Stanford breakthrough in green chemistry could lead to a new recycling process that reverses the polymerisation process to regenerate monomers in their original state, reducing waste and pollution significantly."

See article at http://www.industrysourcing.com/English/china/make_art.asp?id=5287