Rochester.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Inside](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg)
Inside the QMRE plant at Hoo<\/p>\n
The firm\u2019s CEO Tim StClair-Pearce called it a \u201cmomentous landmark\u201d, although he explained: \u201cWe are not actually incinerating anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plastic waste is heated up in a thermal kettle in the absence of oxygen, before breaking down the hydrocarbon chains.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill this pyrolysis operation required a SWIP from the local authority before commercial operations could begin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first step in what is going to be a national network of plastic waste-2-oil systems, which will help transform plastic waste into an oil, which, with further processing, can be turned back into new and renewable plastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hoo facility is initially running two of the systems – known as VIXLAS – which will process up to 10 tonnes of plastic waste per day.<\/p>\n
Company CEO Tim StClair-Pearce called it a \u201cmomentous landmark\u201d<\/p>\n
These will be augmented with an additional two systems at a later date.<\/p>\n
When fully operational, the company aims to have a national network of 100 sites, each with four VIXLAS, processing 550-600,000 tonnes of plastic waste, which will be recycled each year.<\/p>\n
That could account for 10% of all the UK\u2019s plastic waste.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s technology uses a pyrolysis-based process to produce oil from end-of-life plastics.<\/p>\n
The system creates QUEL, a pyro-oil, which can then be refined back into new plastics.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The process is expected to achieve an 85% oil yield, with the remaining 12% comprising non-condensable gas, used internally to power the system, and around 3% carbon, which can be utilised in construction products.<\/p>\n
Plastic waste is first shredded before being thermally processed in the absence of oxygen, breaking down hydrocarbon chains into oil vapour, which is then condensed into liquid form.<\/p>\n
The company said the modular design allows the systems to be deployed in a wide range of settings, from supermarkets and retail parks to industrial estates, public events and local authority recycling centres.<\/p>\n
The firm began as a start-up in 2020 with a small testing facility at Longfield,<\/a> near Dartford, before moving to Hoo in October last year.<\/p>\nIt now expects to employ 21 people at the plant as it moves to round-the-clock shifts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A company that is cleaning up the planet by finding a way to reuse plastic waste has taken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[84,1397,188,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-221489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-business","tag-environment","tag-medway","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}