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It promises to gobble up plastic waste. And, convert that waste into cheap diesel. On paper, Indore-based Green Earth Innovations’ technology holds the potential to tame India’s mountain of plastic waste, and address the country’s burgeoning appetite for diesel, at least the industrial kind.
Indeed, the company claims it can do so for real.
On Monday, it offered to provide a patented technology to entrepreneurs interested in setting up affordable plants to recycle plastic waste into industrial diesel.
Cheap fuel
Not only that, the company said the diesel could be made available at less than half the price of that sold by oil marketing companies (OMCs). The diesel being marketed by OMCs costs Rs 27 a litre but is sold at around Rs 55 due to high taxes.
Addressing the media, Manoj M. Sharma, co-Promoter, said the company would provide its ‘reverse catalysation’ technology — to induce reconversion of plastic waste into fuel — on a franchisee basis to entrepreneurs. The technology, patented in India in 2011, has been certified by the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun, he said, adding that a 10-mt plant is already operating near Indore.
A small plant, with the capacity to convert one tonne of plastic waste (barring PVC and pet bottles) daily, will need an investment of Rs 25 lakh, said Sharma.
No water is required to wash plastic waste prior to its processing, he added.
Plants with a daily processing capacity of up to 30 tonnes can be set up to produce up to 30,000 litres of diesel for niche industrial use, said the company.
The zero-residue, user-friendly and environment-protecting technology, invented by Nilachal Bhattacharya, a former professor of chemistry at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and a co-promoter of the company, is also being patented globally, said Sharma.
With plastic waste costing about Rs 15 a kg, and a conversion cost of Rs 7 per kg of waste, the diesel produced would cost around Rs 22 per kg, he said.
Marketing challenge
Asked about the marketing aspect, Sharma said a parallel marketing network would have to be created by entrepreneurs, who can also sell the product directly to their customers.
However, the diesel thus manufactured will not be suitable for use in passenger vehicles or BS-II compliant automobiles.
It will be suitable for heavy vehicles, boilers, diesel power generators and so on, he noted.
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