The world is constantly looking for greener alternatives to petrol with everything from electricity to vegetable oil trialled by motorists and manufacturers. Now, one entrepreneur believes he has found a technology to turn today’s waste into tomorrow’s fuel.
In an interview with The Times, Philip Hall, a 62-year-old entrepreneur, revealed how his company Reclaim Resources can convert waste into bioethanol.
The company opened its first demonstration plant in Bournemouth last year. The process sees Reclaim’s Vantage Waste Processor blast rubbish with high pressure steam while it passes through a giant rotating cylinder. This breaks down the material into fine fibres with high calorific value – the plastic and metal meanwhile is removed and taken for recycling.
Any biological leftovers are converted into sugars through a process of hydrolysis and acid treatment before being fed into large fermentation tanks. This breaks the waste down into fuel that can then be blended for use in cars, aircrafts or even to feed the gas turbines of a power station.
Despite the limitless possibilities of the process, Hall says that the UK has been slow to react with all of his orders to date coming from foreign firms. He expects developing countries such as China, Malaysia and Russia to be the first to react with the first 30 plants likely to be built overseas before one is tackling waste in England.
Regardless of whether this process takes off or not, it’s clear that something must be done about Britain’s waste – currently we bury 58 per cent of the 220million tonnes of waste we produce every year and by 2013, landfill use must be cut to half of 1995 levels or Britain will violate the EU landfill directive.
