India’s first plastic to diesel plant to be operational soon

AGRA: India’s first plastic to diesel plant which was inaugurated by Hema Malini, MP, Agra, on October 2, is set to be operational from October 11. A K Singh, Assistant City Commissioner, Mathura said that the plant is ready to work, but some paperwork remains to be completed by the pollution control body.

The plant has a capacity to convert one tonne of plastic waste into 150-200 liters of diesel which will be sold at a cost of Rs 45-50 per liter. The diesel converted by the plastic waste cannot be used in vehicles but can be used as an alternative fuel for diesel generators and factory set up. This oil can be used as an alternative to furnace oil in the factories. One of the main advantages of this oil is that it is 25 per cent cheaper than furnace oil, and also contains low sulfur content which makes it less polluting.

AK Singh said, “This plant will eliminate five metric tonnes plastic every day from the city, converting it into diesel. Several hundred tonnes of plastic waste has already been accumulated at the trenching grounds by the municipal corporation and more will be collected in the days to come so that this plant continues to work efficiently and without stopping.”

The plant will work on public private partnership model (PPP) for which the contract has been assigned to Paterson Energy.

Vidya Amarnath, Managing Director of Paterson Energy Pvt Limited explained the process of converting plastic waste into diesel said, the plastic is derived from crude oil through a process called polymerization and at the plant thermos-chemical depolymerization process is done to reconvert plastic to crude oil.