Boat that 'eats' plastic

I am Ashlynn

I just read a news story about this project. It's a boat that will be powered by renewable energy, travelling round and collecting plastic trash from the ocean as it moves along, then it sorts the plastic waste and processes it to generate electricity to help power the boat and the systems.

It should be built and in the water in about two years.

https://www.inceptivemind.com/yvan-bourgnon-seacleaners-manta-sea-cleaning-sailboat/18729/

Piri

I am Ashlynn

This sounds interesting. A very promising project. Hopefully will be a great success story.

Just I am not sure I understand all the process correctly.

Arvīds

Piri Just I am not sure I understand all the process correctly.

I do not really get this as well, if there is a process that converts plastic trash into electricity without harmful emissions why don't we use it in a lot more places?

Piri

Arvīds

I looked a bit and just realized that it is not a super new thing ( well it is a new thing for me) Pyrolysis is a common technique used to convert plastic waste into energy, in the form of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels. Basically by burning it in a specific conditions.

I am surprised most of us didn't hear about it. There are already some studies made to see pros and cons of it.

Everyday learning something new 😂 ( but not so new for the rest of the world)

John

Piri I am surprised most of us didn't hear about it. There are already some studies made to see pros and cons of it.

I'd also never heard of this, and if it actually works and doesn't give out any toxic waste then I'm curious why it isn't more widely used as well, maybe it's just not very efficient?

I am Ashlynn

I just love the whole idea of this boat, and of course it would be better if we could stop the plastic from ever getting in to the ocenas, but even if we did that right now, there is already so much floating around out there that needs to be cleaned up somehow.

I didn't really understand so much about the pyrolysis either but I also did not go so deeply into it to find out more.

Arvīds

I looked up pyrolysis and most of the information that I got was about biomass and much less about how it works with plastic. It's interesting but I still do not understand so much about it.

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