WEST LAFAYETTE (Network Indiana) — Purdue University is developing new technology that makes it possible to convert plastic into usable fuels, such as gasoline or diesel fuel.
As the fine points of the technology are being ironed out by experts at Purdue, on Indiana company is ready to capitalize on it. Hasler Ventures LLC is a company that specializes in the use of “rare Earth elements” for consumption.
CEO Dave Hasler tells Inside Indiana Business that finding new uses for plastic is right up their alley.
“A very small plastics that are delivered to us as containers or anything else, actually gets recycled and reused,” said Hasler. “But, the economics associated with that are not great enough to encourage the mass collection of plastic for its purpose.”
Hasler believes that new tech from Purdue that can melt down plastic and turn it into usable fuels will make it worth it for companies to seek out plastic, pay people for it, and then sell it to make gasoline or diesel fuel. It’s a process that’s been developed by Purdue chemical engineering professor Linda Wang.
“Its basically a pressure cooker,” said Hasler. “The technology that Linda and Purdue have developed basically allows for a process that using less energy and a lower temperature with pressure allows you to be able to render this plastic down to its core elements using a lot less pressure. What we hope we can do here that through the Purdue technology is to be able to recycle plastic into higher-value products.”
Hasler said that provides a larger bang for your buck than simply molding used plastic into a lawn chair. He said the plan is to start increasing the use of the new tech at commercial volumes in the next four to five years.
