Meet the KNUST student converting plastics into diesel

We have heard and seen plastic waste being recycled into all sorts of finished products which offers benefits to modern society but crude oil was unimaginable.

Over the years, plastic waste has been a ‘cash cow’ to the industrialization sector as a wide range of products including bags, furniture, and even building materials are being derived from its recycling.

But extracting diesel from plastic waste seemed impossible to the ‘layman’ until a 20-year-old student’s experiment proved otherwise.

With the necessary support, Emmanuel Nimo, a student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) could boost the country’s fuel sector with his latest invention.

In a TV3 report monitored by GhanaWeb, Emanuel demonstrated the process of using plastic bottles, for instance; the used mineral water containers for diesel.

In a step-by-step process, he adopted a more pragmatic approach of the scientifically tested ‘Pyrolysis ‘procedure, to extract the oil.

First, he squeezed the bottles into a saucepan and placed them on fire.

The bottles melted in a saucepan, leaving behind a thick black substance that he identified as crude oil.

“Plastic is a by-product of crude oil, these black things that have come out. Now let’s pour the other things in it,” he said while moving on to the next stage.

Emmanuel then added some chemicals to it, kept it on the heat a bit further and a full bottle of diesel was extracted.

That’s not all, they tested the substance by using it to power diesel engines of a car and other factory gadgets and it worked.

Watch the video below:



EB/WA