Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 18 Dec 07;
Enviro-Hub's plant will be able to convert into fuel 30,000 tonnes of plastic waste a year
AN EXCITING new use has been found for the annoying plastic waste that often washes up on beaches and clogs rubbish dumps: fuel.
It may sound too good to be true, given the soaring price of crude oil and the global hunt for alternative fuels, but mainboard-listed Enviro-Hub Holdings says it is building the world's first large-scale, commercial plastic-to-fuel plant.
The waste management and recycling firm yesterday announced the construction of Singapore's first $50 million plastic-to-fuel plant - which converts waste plastic into useable fuels and gases.
Its executive chairman, Mr Raymond Ng, told The Straits Times that Enviro-Hub had been researching a long-term environmental solution for plastics since 2005.
Success came only last month, when a pilot plant it built proved that the technology imported from India worked.
This patented technology, for which Enviro-Hub now holds an exclusive licence, heats waste plastic with a special catalyst that breaks it down into 85 per cent diesel, 10 per cent liquid petroleum gas and 5 per cent coke.
'This plant is a historic milestone for the company,' said Mr Ng, formerly the co-founder of waste recycler Citiraya Industries, now known as Centillion Environment and Recycling.
'Plastic waste has always been a big problem for the world. The commercial potential in this technology is huge,' said Mr Ng.
Enviro-Hub's new 200,000 sq ft plant in Tuas, which will cost an initial $30 million to build, will be able to convert into fuel 30,000 tonnes of waste plastic a year.
Mr Mohamed Gani Mohamed Ansari, business development director of Enviro-Hub unit Cimelia Resource Recovery, said the diesel produced - unlike in older technologies - would have low sulphur content and also lower carbon dioxide emissions. The heating process of converting the waste plastic into fuel would also be emissions-free, said Mr Ansari.
Enviro-Hub is now looking into seeking carbon credits from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
These credits are savings in carbon dioxide emissions - largely blamed by scientists for global climate change - that can be traded on the carbon market.
Enviro-Hub's facility - equivalent to a 24MW plant - will use about 5 per cent of the fuel it generates to power itself.
The rest will either be used to power the rest of Enviro-Hub's plants nearby or sold to industries.
The plant will start operations by the second quarter of next year, with its capacity expanding to 50,000 tonnes a year at an additional cost of $20 million by end-2008, said Mr Ng.
Enviro-Hub yesterday incorporated a new unit - Enviro-Power - to operate the plant.
Funding for the plant is internal, the firm said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange.
Singapore is estimated to generate more than 300,000 tonnes of waste plastic a year - a capacity Enviro-Hub hopes its plant will eventually reach.
Enviro-Hub also announced late yesterday that it would invest US$4.2 million (S$6.1 million) in a 30 per cent stake in Enviro Energy - a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
Enviro Energy, through a unit in Thailand, will also be looking to set up a similar plastic-to-fuel plant in Thailand.
The setting up of Enviro-Power and the investment in Enviro Energy are not expected to have any financial impact on the company's current financial year.
Enviro-Hub's shares was 0.5 cent higher at 57.5 cents at yesterday's close.
jcheam@sph.com.sg
Putting waste to good use
HOW ENVIRO-HUB'S PLANT WORKS
# Mixed waste plastic is fed to a reactor to be melted at 350 deg C.
# A special catalyst is added at controlled intervals, whereby a process called depolymerisation starts.
# The catalyst 'cracks' the polymers of the waste plastic, producing three by-products: diesel, liquid petroleum gas and coke.
# The process takes an initial three hours to start up, after which waste plastic can be fed continuously into the reactor all day.
QUICK FACTS
# The first phase of Enviro-Hub's plant will be able to take up to 100 tonnes of waste plastic a day.
# At 30,000 tonnes a year, the plant is expected to produce 20 million litres of diesel, four to five million kilograms of gas and 1,500 tonnes of coke.
# The plant will operate 330 days a year.
Enviro-Hub to build commercial PTF plant
Lynette Khoo, Business Times 18 Dec 07;
Construction of Tuas plant expected to be completed by second quarter '08
RIDING on the success of a pilot project, electronic waste solutions provider Enviro-Hub Holdings is proceeding to build Singapore's first commercial plant for the conversion of waste plastics to fuel.
Enviro-Hub said construction of the plastics-to-fuel (PTF) plant in Tuas will begin immediately and is targeted to be completed in the second quarter of next year. Commercial production is expected to start the same quarter.
'The plant has the capacity to convert 30,000 tonnes of waste plastics into fuel annually,' Enviro-Hub said, adding: 'It is fully automated and requires less than 20 workers to operate. The initial capital investment is estimated at $15 million. The investment will be mainly funded by internal source.'
Enviro-Hub aims to increase the annual process capacity to 50,000 tonnes by end-2008.
During the building of the plant, Enviro-Hub will be marketing this new service and similar plants globally, having received expressions of interest from Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Philippines, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and Brazil.
Enviro-Hub said the latest technology know-how, which is patented and licensed to the group, allows waste plastics to be broken down into fuel at significantly lower temperatures. It also ensures a yield of 85 per cent commercial quality fuel, with the remaining 15 per cent ending up as liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and coke.
'The successful completion of our pilot PTF plant is a historic milestone for Enviro-Hub Group. This project is able not only to give an alternative solution to the plastic components found in electronic wastes, but could also be expanded to resolve the long-outstanding problems many countries face with the municipal or general plastic wastes,' said Enviro-Hub executive chairman Raymond Ng.
Analysts at the Asia Pacific Recycling Conference held earlier this year in India had estimated that by 2009, global consumption of plastics in packaging will reach US$190 billion, second to paper and board which exceeds US$210 billion. The disposal of plastics is a global problem given the lack of land for landfills.
'Not only will our PTF plants solve the growing environmental issue of plastics ending up in landfills, but they will also enable us to produce commercial quality fuel, LPG and coke,' Mr Ng said.
Enviro-Hub noted that the size of the Singapore market is substantial as the volume of waste disposal here allows for the construction of up to 10 such plastics-to-fuel plants. Its current contracts provide guaranteed regular supply of waste to the first plant as some 40 to 50 per cent of the electronic waste that the group collects consist of plastics.
This new plant is expected to have a financial impact on the group next year but the actual impact will depend on how fast its operations take off, the group said.
