Reaping Oil From Discarded Plastic

September 29, 2011, 10:02 am

Reaping Oil From Discarded Plastic

By MICHAEL KANELLOS

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Agilyx, an Oregon-based start-up, says it has created a system that converts discarded plastic into crude oil. A prototype has been in development for 18 months, and the company says it hopes to start selling commercial versions in about nine months.

The system, an assembly of pipes and vessels that will cost around $5 million, essentially cooks plastics into a gas and then condenses the vapor into a soup of long-chain hydrocarbons that can subsequently be converted into diesel, jet fuel or other substances.

One factory module can turn 40,000 pounds of plastic into 130 barrels of oil a day, and larger modules are on the way, according to Bob Schwarz, Agilyx’s chief financial officer. Roughly a gallon of gas can be squeezed out of seven to 10 pounds of plastic, he said.

While refiners would process landfill oil into final products, trash companies would largely own and operate the machinery to make the basic feedstock. Many systems would by default probably wind up on landfills near large cities. “Plastic is where the population is,” Mr. Schwarz said.

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Waste Management, the Houston-based national waste pickup company, has invested in Agilyx and a number of other resource recovery companies and has begun to position itself as a resource services company as well, as opposed to your average garbage hauler. Total Energy Ventures international, the venture-capital arm of the French oil giant Total, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have also invested in Agilyx.

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