Technology converts difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into oil
Based out of Beaverton, Oregon, Agilyx is an alternative energy company and technology provider with a grand vision. This vision includes diverting plastics from landfill, while decreasing our dependence on traditional sources of oil, all while creating community and local jobs through a small-scale, distributed waste management and energy production approach.
The company offers a patented, proven, and commercially viable technology to convert difficult-to-recycle waste plastics into synthetic crude oil through a fully permitted process that is scalable, versatile and environmentally positive. Agilyx systems are modular and are ideal for industrial and municipal waste plastic generators and aggregators looking to reduce disposal-related costs and increase plastics-associated revenues.
Currently, the company says they have the only known refinery off-take agreement in the industry and is shipping crude oil from its facility in Portland, Oregon to a refinery in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. In 2011, Agilyx won an AlwaysOn Going Green Global 200 award for its technology.
“The plastic that our technology is specifically designed and engineered to handle is waste plastic that is too commingled or too dirty to be recycled conventionally,” explains Agilyx’ CEO, Chris Ulum. “Agilyx technology enables the conversion of plastic into a petrochemical product that is a drop-in replacement for fossil crude, and which can be refined into ultra-low sulphur diesel, diesel, gasoline and Jet A.”
The Agilyx base system consists of six primary vessels (shown top right) and the associated secondary processing equipment. The base system is capable of converting approximately 30 tons of plastic into approximately 177 barrels (or approximately 7,500 gallons) of oil per day. Plus, processing capacity can be scaled to meet a customer’s requirements, in increments of 10 tons per day, by combining multiple base systems together.
One common exhaust system manages the hot air produced by all of the processing units, while one state-of-the-art Environmental Control Device scrubs all of the non-condensable gases, ensuring that the system meets the most stringent air quality requirements. Additionally, an innovative Supervisory Station, with touch screens and a graphical user interface, allows operators to easily monitor and manage all parts of the system from one central location.
“When densified plastic is loaded into our system, it uses pyrolytic technology (anaerobic heating) that effectively vaporizes off the hydrocarbons and recondenses them into synthetic crude oil,” explains Ulum. “We generate a lot of waste as a society and there’s no waste stream that is more problematic to recycle than plastic. And by far the predominant end of life solution for waste plastic is landfilling. So, our technology can solve a fairly big problem with respect to end of life plastic.
“At the same time, in the U.S. for example, we import the majority of our oil and we spend well over a billion dollars per day on imported oil,” continues Ulum. “So, if we can produce from a waste stream that is already being collected and handled everyday, a drop-in replacement for fossil crude...then that is a gallon for gallon, barrel for barrel substitute effect. We think we’ve solved two really vexing problems; the proliferation of waste plastic in our landfills and our dependence on fossil crude oil, which costs us economically, politically and environmentally.”
