Lok Sabha Question No. 3215 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-03-14
Subject: Producing Liquid Hydrocarbon Oil from Plastic Waste
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: GAJANAN CHANDRAKANT KIRTIKAR, ANWHAR RAAJHAA, BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO, SUDHEER GUPTA, T. RADHAKRISHNAN, ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN, NARANBHAI KACHHADIA, KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH, VIJAY KUMAR S.R.

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH

## LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 3215

(TO BE ANSWERED ON 14.03.2018)

## PRODUCING LIQUID HYDROCARBON OIL FROM PLASTIC WASTE

## 3215.  SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR:

SHRI A. ANWHAR RAAJHAA:

SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO:

SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA:

SHRI T. RADHAKRISHNAN:

SHRI ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN:

SHRI NARANBHAI KACHHADIYA:

KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH:

SHRI S.R. VIJAYAKUMAR:

Will the Minister of SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a)    whether  certain  countries  are  producing  liquid  hydrocarbon  oil  from plastic waste and if so, the details thereof;
- (b)    whether any research has been undertaken by his Ministry in this regard and if so, the details thereof;
- (c)      whether  a  facile  technology  for  converting  plastic  waste  to  petroleum products has been developed by CSIR which is under advance stage of implementation;
- (d) if so, the details of the projects and the reasons for delay in implementation along with the time by which it is likely to be implemented;
- (e)      whether  the  Indian  Railways  has  shown  interest  in  converting  their  inhouse generated waste plastic to diesel to run their locomotives; and
- (f)     if so, the details thereof and the time by which it is likely to be finalised?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. HARSH VARDHAN)

- (a) It appears from information available on internet that plants are installed in  some  countries  which  claim  to  produce  liquid  hydrocarbon  oil  from plastic  wastes,  viz.,  Cynar  Plc  (UK  &  Ireland),  Agilyx  (USA),  Polymer Energy LLC (USA), Plastic2Oil (USA), Blest (Japan), etc.
- (b) CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP), Dehradun along with GAIL (India) Ltd is working on a project to convert waste plastics to liquid fuel (gasoline/diesel).

CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT) has developed a solid catalyst to convert waste plastics in to fuel oil.

- (c) Yes, CSIR-IIP along with GAIL (India) Ltd. has developed a process for converting waste plastics (polyethylene and polypropylene) into any one of  the  products,  viz.  Gasoline,  diesel  or  aromatics.    The  process  after being developed at the lab scale has been validated at the bench scale and 1 Ton per day (TPD) pilot/demo unit is being set up at CSIR-IIP.

Solid  catalyst  developed  by  CSIR-IICT  is  ready  for  implementation  in collaboration with industry.

- (d) The  1  TPD  demo  plant  is  likely  to  be  commissioned  by  CSIR-IIP  in September-October  2018.  After  commissioning,  experiments  would  be carried  out  for  revalidation,  fine  tuning  of  process  parameters.  The process is likely to be ready for implementation for  commercial application by mid-2019.
- (e) A discussion was held between CSIR-IIP and Indian Railways on 9 th  April 2015 for adoption of this technology by Indian Railways. Indian Railways had shown interest to adopt this technology for converting their in-house waste plastics into diesel.
- (f) Indian Railways would be approached for adoption once this technology is ready for commercial application.

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