A Machine That Turns Plastic Back Into Oil

[werepossum]

Plenty of commercial products make claims which break the laws of nature. The problem is that their performance can't break these laws. If you link to said unit, maybe we can comment on it further.

This doesn't necessarily break the laws of nature, as plenty of things get more energy out than are input. Heat pumps for instance produce considerably more heat than the electricity they produce; methane production typically produces more methane than is consumed in producing the methane. Mankind is becoming clever in using those laws of nature.

Lots of machines and processes do similar things to turn plastic into oil. As Toasted said, it's usually attempting to scale them up to a practical level and adapt them into a usable product that kills the technology. Let's hope that at some point someone (preferably several someones simultaneously and separately) perfects this technology.

 

[Moonbeam]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/22/BUP51EIF3H.DTL

Nine other companies awarded for technological innovation.

 

[Toastedlightly]

An example of how things that aren't come to be:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/22/BUP51EIF3H.DTL

I do understand the university research system (its how I was employed for a year). There are a lot of great advances that science can bring us, there is no doubting that.

 

[Moonbeam]

I do understand the university research system (its how I was employed for a year). There are a lot of great advances that science can bring us, there is no doubting that.

I started a new thread from your point here but I didn't bring the link.

 

[desy]

Back to some of the ideas I posted up
We are treating the feed stock as 'free' so we do have net usefull product after all is said and done, energy in < out
Secondly, if the cradle to grave price of the plastics were put on the makers of plastic, maybe it would be cost competative over oil since now its costs are covering lifecycle of a product.
As a believer in peak oil anytime we can recover oil instead of throwing it away has merit

 

[Cogman]

Back to some of the ideas I posted up
We are treating the feed stock as 'free' so we do have net usefull product after all is said and done, energy in < out
Secondly, if the cradle to grave price of the plastics were put on the makers of plastic, maybe it would be cost competative over oil since now its costs are covering lifecycle of a product.
As a believer in peak oil anytime we can recover oil instead of throwing it away has merit

Unless the energy of recovery is greater than the energy of the oil recovered.

In other words, burning 10gals of oil to recover 1 doesn't make sense.

 

[Moonbeam]

Unless the energy of recovery is greater than the energy of the oil recovered.

In other words, burning 10gals of oil to recover 1 doesn't make sense.

Massively expensive surgeries are done to recover a few scraps of worthless lead.