An Irish company has developed and patented a process to transform old plastic into sustainable fuel, including sustainable aviation fuel and wax.
Trifol Resources is already up and running with two so-called “reactors”, or massive recycling machines, installed and operating since June at the former Bord Na Móna briquette factory at Littleton in Co Tipperary.
Two major international oil companies have reached agreements with Trifol to buy all the sustainable aviation fuel that the Littleton plant can produce.
It is a massive achievement and means that Littleton, which for decades was synonymous with the production of climate-damaging fossil fuels, will become a central location for the production of carbon neutral sustainable fuels.
Trifol founder and Chairman Pat Alley said it is all about bringing a new life to plastics, and that plastic need not have the bad image that it has worldwide.
“We know there are problems there. But we are coming forward with new technology, to be a solution provider for plastics,” he said.
“We are going to be a tremendous solution provider to a large number of corporates and small businesses in Ireland, and throughout the globe, by providing solutions for all the waste plastic that they generate.
“We will be able to independently certify the destruction of that plastic and its conversion into a useful product without subsidy,” Mr Alley added.
The key to what Trifol is doing at Littleton to transform waste plastic into highly valuable substances like wax and sustainable fuels is a process called pyrolysis.
This involves a huge machine that decomposes the waste plastic by heating it at enormous temperatures, in the absence of oxygen or flames, until it becomes a gas.
It is then put through processes that cool the gas down at different temperatures or rates.
The rate at which the gas is forced to cool down then determines what the end product will be.
It could be wax, very high-quality diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, or Naphta – which is a very low octane form of petrol.
Chemical Engineer and Trifol Managing Director Ruben Quintero said it is an exciting new technology and the process is working beautifully at Littleton.
“It’s really good. It’s good for Ireland, it’s good for the world, and it’s good for our customers,” he says.
“We are looking at production of ultra-low sulphur diesel, sustainable aviation fuel with very high-quality specifications, and wax chemicals that can be used in many different markets and applications – lubricants, additives, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, tyre manufacturing as a plasticiser, for waterproofing clothes, for synthetic lubricants in cars, and many other applications.”
Asked if an aeroplane could operate on recycled waste plastic, Dr Quintero said: “Absolutely.”
He added: “The jet fuel that will come out of here will be ideal as a sustainable aviation fuel. And yes, we could run a jet on it.
“We’re looking forward to doing those tests, hopefully with Irish companies. Ryanair would be great.
“And we are looking forward to doing some tests on fuels for Formula-One racing cars. We are moving some connections around that.”
Trifol said its Littleton plant is going to need as much as 75% of all the plastic waste in Ireland that is not currently being collected through the Re-Turn plastic bottle and can scheme.
The waste plastic being recycled at Littleton is mostly different types of polyethylene.
Included in that is waste farm plastic, the kind that farmers use for covering hay and silage.
On that score Trifol’s location at the former Bord Na Móna briquette factory is very fortunate.
€15.5 million invested in Littleton plant
In 2019 a Chinese company called Sabrina Integrated Services, in partnership with Bord Na Móna, started a farm plastics recovery and recycling operation right beside the Trifol plant.
This Sabrina operation collects, cleans, and sorts waste farm plastic before either shredding it or turning it into plastic pellets.
This is an ideal raw material for the Trifol plant, and it comes from right next door.
So far Trifol has invested €15.5 million in its Littleton plant. This includes €4.5m in grants from the EU and the Irish Climate Fund.
That has given it two massive chemical “reactor” machines and all the supporting plant and equipment to enable the conversion of 4000 tonnes of plastic waste per year.
Early next year it will invest a further €5m on upgrading production to 12,000 tonnes.
Then in 2026 and 2027 the plan is to install 12 additional reactors at a cost of about €90m.
By that stage the operation in Ireland is going to require up to 90,000 tonnes of waste plastic per year.
The people behind the company see little problem sourcing this and say there will be no problem either about finding waste plastic for similar plants the company will build abroad in the future.
Dr Quintero said its operation will leave a legacy, and it matters for the world.
“We are all about Environmental Social Governance. We care about our customers. We care about sustainability. We care about the planet. And we are making a good profit.
“We are going to put Ireland on the map as the country with the bragging rights to claim these kinds of technologies, get rid of the plastic problem, become carbon negative, and many other things that are going to come through”.
Key points about plastic
Every year about 450 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide. It is clean, easy to use, sterile and versatile. Yet it is the cause of an enormous pollution problem.
Globally only about 9% of produced plastic is currently being recycled.
Instead, about 2,000 waste trucks full of the stuff is dumped into oceans, rivers and lakes every day.
Europe is a little better at dealing with plastic waste than many other regions, but it still has a very long way to go.
For instance, 40% of Europe’s plastic waste is simply burned/incinerated.
The next 25% gets dumped in landfill.
Only 16% of Europe’s plastic waste is collected for recycling.
The remaining 19% is unaccounted for.
At 58kg per capita, Ireland generates more plastic packaging waste per person than any other country in the EU.
About 28% of that plastic is recycled and the obligation is to bring that rate up to 55% by 2030.