Photo: Chandana Banerjee
Dr. Medha Tadpatrikar found a nontoxic way to burn plastic and produce a cheap fuel for India.
I never use plastic in the oven or the microwave because I know that as plastic heats and disintegrates, it lets off toxic fumes.
So I was a little surprised — but also relieved — to learn that a new process burns plastic waste to generate energy and doesn’t expose anyone to danger.
For the Christian Science Monitor, Chandana Banerjee reports, “In 60 cities in India, 16,876 tons of plastic waste are generated each day, according to data from the country’s Central Pollution Control Board. Multiply that by 365, and you have more than 6 million tons of plastic that end up in landfills a year. …
“Dr. [Medha] Tadpatrikar resolved to find a way to make plastic waste useful. She and Shirish Phadtare started experimenting in Tadpatrikar’s kitchen, trying to ‘cook’ plastic in a pressure cooker to create a practical fuel. ‘Plastic is made of crude oil, and we wanted to reverse the process to get usable oil,’ Tadpatrikar explains.
“After lots of kitchen R&D, some trial and error, and help from engineer friends, this experimenting duo has come up with an operation in the Pune, India, area that benefits the environment in several ways. They are indeed producing fuel, using a process that doesn’t emit toxic gases. …
“ ‘We blew up quite a few cookers in the process,’ says Tadpatrikar, smiling. Later that year, they cofounded Rudra Environmental Solution. …
“ ‘Our two new machines, one that we launched in 2013 and the other in 2015, use up every bit of the byproducts, including the gases,’ says Tadpatrikar, noting that even the leftover sludge can be mixed with bitumen to create roads. …
“The fuel churned out by the two machines is carefully collected in bottles, and it’s sold to people in 122 villages around Pune at a subsidized rate of 38 rupees (53 cents) per liter. It’s a boon for villagers like Nanda Shinde, who can’t afford to buy any other fuel. …
“ ‘In the monsoons, when the wood is soggy, I’d have to burn plastic bags to cook a meal on,’ explains Shinde, who toils in the fields, attends to household chores, and looks after her family of six from the first light of dawn until the last of the evening.
” ‘Now I give my waste plastic to Rudra, and I am doing this so my children will have a cleaner world to live in,” adds Shinde.”
More at the Christian Science Monitor, here.
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