Japanese Man Makes Plastic into Oil

[RadiusXd]

I find it more interesting that petrol can be made from exaust and moisture in the air.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Reminds me of the discworld alchemist who finally learnt how to make lead into gold

'All I need to change a pound of lead into gold is heat, oh and three pounds of gold to make the reaction work'.

But yeah, it's still a move in the right direction, and surely soon we can build solar or wind powered plants that we can deliver all the plastic to, to make our own oil, and then leave the middle east the hell alone. Oh I forgot, we only went there to 'help'.

 

[Darkfreak]

Wow this is great! 1+ for Japan!
...
Which I guess that makes the score:
Japan: 100000000000
Everyone Else: 1

 

[razer17]

Erm not really? I learnt this in 11th grade (or year ten). Plastics are made from hydrocarbons that also make up oil, except they are all more complicated in the plastics. Seeing as you can brake larger hydrocarbons into smaller onces it isnt that amazing. This man has just turned theory into practice. The concept has been around for YONKS but the actuall invention is here now.

Actually, considering the permanence of most chemical reactions, this is very hard. It's a little like turning toast to bread.

Isn't that a bit like making a device that makes sand out of computer chips?

What use would it be exactly? I think you can make plastics out of things other than oil so maybe if you absolutely desperately needed oil and nothing else would do you could go through the rigmarole of making 'synthetic' plastic and then converting it into oil...

Am I totally missing the point here? I'm not sure...

A: Plastic takes up a lot of room in landfill. Imagine we could take that plastic and turn it into petrol. That way we take care of two problems: The issue of space, and the issue of running out of oil for petrol.

I don't think synthetic plastics would work in the same way, since the chemical compounds within it are different.

 

[Wheresmyslaw]

I'm going to find and print out the blueprints for this device. Maybe now I'll be prepared for the coming zombie apocalypse.

 

[HighHoax]

Urgh! My mind has been explodeded.

Hopefully they can make like... a machine that can turn horses into unicorns. You know it's possible! But knowing Japan it'll be a robotic unicorn that shoots lasers through 100 different locations on it's body!

 

[p3t3r]

i thought plastic was made of oil. wouldn't it be easier to not make the plastic in the first place? either way i suppose that is pretty fancy

 

[Tears of Blood]

The pessimism in this thread is extremely depressing.

C'mon guys, you know this is fifteen different kinds of cool.

 

[teqrevisited]

I don't think some of the people in this thread realize just how hard some of the polymer chains are to break down usefully. Even then a reusable plastic is normally just melted down and reformed.

Well done that man.

 

[C95J]

Japan. Is there anything it can't do?

kill chuck norris

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

This actually isn't very amazing. We use oil to make plastic anyways. You would think reverse engineering the process would be easy.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

A: Plastic takes up a lot of room in landfill. Imagine we could take that plastic and turn it into petrol. That way we take care of two problems: The issue of space, and the issue of running out of oil for petrol.

I don't think synthetic plastics would work in the same way, since the chemical compounds within it are different.

The point is rather then burning waste plastic it can be converted to oil and then refined into fuel. Particularity useful in countries that have to import all their oil like Japan.

Also the inventor is spreading the idea that what is perceived as trash can be converted into something usable, rather letting it pile up. Kind of like recycling but changing the material into something very different rather than back into itself.

Way ahead of you guys...

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.227711.7836358

Unless Japan suddenly stops needing plastic it is a pretty inefficient way of doing things.

 

[lacktheknack]

Japan. Is there anything it can't do?

Ordinary things?

http://www.omni-ts.com/_common/img/winner.jpg

OT: Interesting. Let's see if this actually goes somewhere.