Can effective alternative fuel vehicles be built without plastics?
I can understand alternative ENERGY sources, but… How do you produce plastics without drillling for oil?
I can understand alternative ENERGY sources, but… How do you produce plastics without drillling for oil?
From Carbon and Hydrogen. Synthesizing polymers from the base components is called polymerization, synthesizing them from larger hydrocarbons is olglimerization.
Linear hydrocarbon chains such as iso-octane (ideal gasoline) and iso-decane through iso-dodecane (diesel) can be esily synthesized from carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas (a mixture called syngas) via a process known as Fischer Tropsch synthesis which is how Nazi Germany and embargoed South Africa fueled themselves without oil. Syngas can be easily made by burning in a low atmosphere environment, a process known as gasification. The feedstock to gasification can be anything that burns, even sewage. The leftover solids of gasification is charcoal which when used as a soil amendment remains stable for thousands of years effectively sequestering the carbon and dramatically improving the fertility of the soil. Carbon amendments with organic materials such as with compost or with slash and burn techniques provide unstable carbon that becomes CO2 in a relatively short period of time but charcoal amendments remain in the soil for thousands of years.
You can easily make plastics from anything that burns and doing so will sequester carbon from the atmosphere reducing the amount of atmospheric CO2. You can also easily make gasoline and diesel the same way.
Making plastics does not use up nearly as much oil as burning it to run engines. And the plastic made from oil still contains the carbon from the oil; making the plastic does not increase CO2 levels in the air. Anyway, I am sure plastics can be made from biologically produced oils too.
The Shah of Iran once said that he can’t believe Americans *burn* oil considering how valuable it is for making plastics!
Fortunately it doesn’t take that much oil. And yes, you can make plastics from bio-oils, but petroleum will never be THAT scarce.
There are several cars out there right now that are design studies in this. The Splinter (sorry can’t think of who makes it) which is all wood, and the Bamgoo which is made mostly out of… you guessed it, bamboo!
In the upcoming 2010 Toyota Prius, the dash is made using Toyota’s eco plastics. (The current Prius has some carpeting made using the bio-plastics, and the Raum was first to see the use of eco plastics.) Yes, the plastics are biodegradable, but their source material is plant material (polylactic acid). Toyota claims to use carbon-neutral plants, such as sweet potatoes and sugarcane.
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/environmental_rep/03/special02.html
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/environment/recycle/design/recycle.html
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/news/03/0724.html