Construction to Begin on Plastics-to-Fuel Plant

[ceo_energemsier + 1,818]

Construction to Begin on Plastics-to-Fuel Plant

California-based Brightmark Energy will today break ground on its $260 million plastics-to-fuel plant in the northeast Indiana town of Ashley. The 112,000-square-foot facility, which the company says will be the first of its kind in the nation, is expected to create 136 full-time jobs when fully operational. The plant will use a state-of-the-art process to recycle plastic waste that has reached the end of its useful life, including items that normally cannot be recycled, such as plastic film, flexible packaging, styrofoam and children's toys, into fuels and wax.

Brightmark Chief Executive Officer Bob Powell says getting to the groundbreaking after more than a decade of planning is "gratifying." In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Powell said the plant and its process are a "conversation changer" when it comes to plastics and the environment.

"There's a lot of good because of the properties of plastics," said Powell. "The issue is that if you do not reuse plastics and we continue to produce plastics that go out into the environment, we've got a big problem

 

 

Now, the conversation goes from one versus the other to we can have a good environment and use plastics for their good use and then, the next question is, 'How do we deploy this quick enough? How do we do it so that we have enough of an impact soon enough because of the impending issues we have with putting plastics into the waste stream?'"

The facility will initially have the ability to convert about 100,000 tons of plastics into more than 18 million gallons of ultra-low sulfur diesel and naphtha blend socks, as well as six million gallons of commercial grade wax each year. Brightmark has already secured deals with BP to purchase the fuel and AM WAX to purchase the wax products created at the facility.

Powell says the goal is to have the facility up and running by the end of 2020. He says the company hopes to eventually build similar facilities in other parts of the country where they can bring in plastic waste from all of the mid-to-large-size metropolitan areas.

"Once the Ashley, Indiana plant is up and running, what we want to do is have several shovel-ready sites to go that we can then fund with the success of this plant."

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. has offered Brightmark up to $1 million in conditional tax credits and training grants, which the company will not be eligible to claim until Hoosier workers are hired for the new jobs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Powell said the plant and its process are a "conversation changer" when it comes to plastics and the environment.

 

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,190]

On 5/23/2019 at 12:08 PM, ceo_energemsier said:

Construction to Begin on Plastics-to-Fuel Plant

California-based Brightmark Energy will today break ground on its $260 million plastics-to-fuel plant in the northeast Indiana town of Ashley. The 112,000-square-foot facility, which the company says will be the first of its kind in the nation, is expected to create 136 full-time jobs when fully operational. The plant will use a state-of-the-art process to recycle plastic waste that has reached the end of its useful life, including items that normally cannot be recycled, such as plastic film, flexible packaging, styrofoam and children's toys, into fuels and wax.

Brightmark Chief Executive Officer Bob Powell says getting to the groundbreaking after more than a decade of planning is "gratifying." In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Powell said the plant and its process are a "conversation changer" when it comes to plastics and the environment.

"There's a lot of good because of the properties of plastics," said Powell. "The issue is that if you do not reuse plastics and we continue to produce plastics that go out into the environment, we've got a big problem

 

 

Now, the conversation goes from one versus the other to we can have a good environment and use plastics for their good use and then, the next question is, 'How do we deploy this quick enough? How do we do it so that we have enough of an impact soon enough because of the impending issues we have with putting plastics into the waste stream?'"

The facility will initially have the ability to convert about 100,000 tons of plastics into more than 18 million gallons of ultra-low sulfur diesel and naphtha blend socks, as well as six million gallons of commercial grade wax each year. Brightmark has already secured deals with BP to purchase the fuel and AM WAX to purchase the wax products created at the facility.

Powell says the goal is to have the facility up and running by the end of 2020. He says the company hopes to eventually build similar facilities in other parts of the country where they can bring in plastic waste from all of the mid-to-large-size metropolitan areas.

"Once the Ashley, Indiana plant is up and running, what we want to do is have several shovel-ready sites to go that we can then fund with the success of this plant."

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. has offered Brightmark up to $1 million in conditional tax credits and training grants, which the company will not be eligible to claim until Hoosier workers are hired for the new jobs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Powell said the plant and its process are a "conversation changer" when it comes to plastics and the environment.

 

Now if we can make this for 100% of all garbage.  No sorting.  Just dump it all in.  Sort by density. 

[Meredith Poor + 895]

Keyword search 'de-manufacturing'

[BenFranklin'sSpectacles + 762]

On 5/26/2019 at 7:39 AM, Wastral said:

Now if we can make this for 100% of all garbage.  No sorting.  Just dump it all in.  Sort by density. 

It probably won't be as simple as "sort by density", but I catch your drift: there's a lot of value in waste streams.  Recovering just half of what we dump into landfills would dramatically change natural resource requirements.  

We're probably getting there, too. Most metals can already be removed from waste streams by magnetic means.  IIRC, Germany efficiently sorts electronic waste to recover the rare, trace metals.  Etc. 

What I find most interesting, however, is the possibility of gasification/FT to convert any source of carbon to petroleum products.  Reducing plastics is a good start, but what about lumber products?  Paper?  Municipal yard waste?  With chemical reduction, all that must be separated. With gasification, it could all be thrown into the same reactor.  On the other hand, maybe gasification/FT costs more than chemical reduction + sorting.  I don't know, but I look forward to watching this play out.