Hypothesis of decreasing the consumption of petroleum derivatives due to the increase in recycling technologies

The reaction that world public opinion is having regarding the problem of pollution produced by plastic waste which is unconsciously released into the environment, is creating not only an environmentalist awareness which until a few years ago was very little felt in various strata of the world population, but it is creating consequences not foreseen only 10 years ago regarding the production and sale of petroleum derivatives.

The movement of opinion that is growing day after day against the dispersion of plastic packaging, especially in the seas, has also pushed large packaging manufacturers to find alternatives to their production standards.

This new awareness has led a large number of minds to think about the possibility of recycling plastic in an alternative way to common knowledge, also regarding the increasingly stringent European and American regulations, which require an increase in the % recycling of plastic materials.

One of these new studies is focusing on the production of combustible liquids derived from the recycling of commonly used plastic, through the production of thermal cracking at 400° to recreate a synthetic product that is light and sulfur-free and can be processed with other oils in refinery.

Another study also uses thermal cracking technology but calibrated to the production of naphtha and a diesel-like distillate that is mixed with normal refinery diesel.

Then there are the acquisitions that have occurred on the market, by the producers of virgin raw materials (polymers) deriving from petroleum, of plastics recyclers in order to control the long plastic supply chain and prevent possible losses in turnover with the decrease in sale of virgin polymers.

This ferment in the world of plastic recycling does not only concern America and Europe, but also Asia, where governments, including China and Indonesia, are implementing complex and extensive recycling programs to avoid problems like those occurred in Indonesia where the army had to intervene to clean up the plastic blocking the Citarum river.

Having said this, it is expected that in the short term the demand for crude oil may be influenced by the events in progress, in fact the president of the company eChem , which deals with consultancy in the energy sector, claims that if the increase in the recycling of polyethylene and polypropylene were to continue at the rates expected in light of all the technologies that are coming into play, this could lead to a medium-term loss of millions of tons of oil, thus canceling the production growth that many oil companies were expecting.

Furthermore, oil has another strong competitor called: natural gas liquids. In fact, in the United States, ethane is attracting numerous investments, particularly in the north-eastern regions.

Category: news - plastic - circular economy - recycling

See more information on recycling