Discussion on:

Researchers discover how to turn plastic trash into electricity

Not sure if this is viable at the locations of the gyres in our oceans, but maybe placing floating energy-generating platforms at these locations, and use the electricity for local uses (I don't know if it's viable to send power to land from that distance, perhaps a recharging station for ships? Desalination for drinking water? Communications relay? Oceanic casino? Hydrogen facility?)

Even just getting rid of some of the plastic is a step in the right
direction. If it can be used for energy, even better!

nonrenewable plastic???Maybe we must seek a solution to recover all kinds of plastics , because when the oilsources getting dry plastic wil be very rare, and expensive . Instead of burning plastics
(and what is not renewable plastic, it isquestionable) let us search to upgrade used plastic to make somthing better of it like composites.

Jan Anton gilles

I'm not all that concerned with plastic as a pollutant. Plastic is fairly
benign; other than being unsightly I don't see it as being much
different than natural benign materials (rocks). However, being able
to recoup some of the energy expended in their manufacture would
be a huge benefit. As long as its economically feasible.

Good idea to use for Pacific Gyre. It would not be self-sustaining commercially, at least not initally, but in the very least it would be inexpensive to skim all the plastic crap off the surface and burn it (cleanly of course).
It's one of those things like global warming and asteroid impacts... it might not be free to avoid a global catastrophe, but if we could convince Fox news watchers that the "free market" doesn't account for these sort of things perhaps we could prevent disasters.

Anyway, the actual technology for this is not new, and in the early 2000's the US army was looking into using this to avoid burning waste in uncontrolled incinerators (which they currently do, or should i say KBR does?).
They had a working prototype that would not only combust all camp waste but also provide up to 40 KW of electricity (based on an average camp size).

That said, this is probably an incremental improvement on gasification technology, and all improvements are welcome!

Currently the US is the only well-developed country in the world which does NOT utilize waste as a source of energy, but continues to bury it in landfills!

its unfortunate that some people think USofA as a well developed country! I am sure its kinda over developed and now un-developing itself... The problems is not plastics or any other material. its actually oversue, abuse and senseless waste of material. Overconsumption in USofA is the only cause of all the world problems!
no-offense

I don't doubt that this technology can work, the physics are fairly basic. The question is at what price. What is the cost per KWh of electricity generated? If it is competitive, then they REALLY have something. Otherwise it is useless.

Photovoltaics at 25 cents a KWh won't cut it either but at 8 cents a KWh they can replace almost all the electricity we currently get from nuclear & fossil fuels.

We need to remove the subsidies that "conventional" sources receive so alternatives can compete on a level playing field. This would be truly a free market.

Ok. As a start I reply to jalbertini. When I worked at Solarex in Frederick, Md.(1997-2000) they were the only solar cell manufacturer in the world that made solar cells at a proffit without gov. assistance. They are (were BP Solarex till this year). BP just closed the Frederick plant. At the time I worked there we where battling hard to get the cost down and the output of the cells up. The initail energy costs were high to manufacture the cells, but the cells could produce energy from a free source forever (or nearly) once in place. Thin film couldn't at that time. Okay next, If we can use the wasted resources of the plastic 'trash' and clean-up the ocean at the same time it might be worth it. The clean-up could be paid in part by the profit from the energy produced. It would not have to be totally in the black as to profit if it reduced the cost of cleaning up a mess. Less drain on us would enable more money to be spent for other problems. It could mean less drain on the public coffers and less drain on our resources. This is a maybe, has anyone else got something to add that would make this work. I've only got some experince to work with, add yours. Don't say no, say what you can add to make it work!

It has been proven that it is economical to buy a commercial gasifying unit for say $225,000 by office complexes, etc. It works out cheaper than to pay for garbage removal. You have the gas, fewer trucks on the road, smaller garbage dumps, etc.

This is a great idea that should be explored. I'm curious to learn how much water it needs, however, since recycling in general takes a tremendous amount. If it could use ocean water, HvyMtl's comment about the floating platforms might help that. In the meanwhile, everybody STOP USING PLASTIC! MOST OF IT DOESN"T GET RECYCLED (obviously) and it's kind of poisonous in its very nature. Reuse, reuse, reuse, reuse.

Great!!! thanks for sharing this information to us!

After burning the plastic above 450 degree celsius in the first tank what about the remaining plastic substances in the tank ?

After pyrolysis of waste plastic a small amount of melted plastic remain in the tank , what should we do with it? or the entire plastic evapurates ?

Is it possible to make a scaled down working model of this system????

i want to create car which run on plastic by converting plastic into electricity and use that electricity to run car .............i need too much guidence for that........please help

what type of plastics are to be used in pyrolysis