Prototyping a Dynamic Mechanism and Control System for a Mixed Plastic Waste to RPO system

Recycling Technologies, a spin out from Warwick University, has developed a patented
system, the WarwickFBR™, which recycles plastic waste into hydrocarbon based product, the
RPO. Each year in the UK large quantities of plastic that cannot be recycled through
mechanical processes are landfilled or incinerated. It is anticipated that this system, built into
an ISO freight container, will provide a cost effective way to recycle this wasted resource into
a clean and valuable product, RPO. This will be useable as feedstock for more plastic, as a
substitute for slack-wax, as a fuel in CHP engines or for industrial heating applications,
whichever is most environmentally and commercially beneficial in each location.
The technology has been demonstrated at a laboratory scale and a prototype machine is being
developed to extend this demonstration to a commercial scale. The problem is that waste
plastic varies significantly from load to load, region to region and over time. Using the
laboratory rig, it has been shown that a consistent RPO can be produced even with these
variations in the plastic is fed into the system, but this is dependent on changing the process
parameters. For this system to be successful it is essential to build into the prototype the
ability to vary the process parameters dynamically using an attribute of the RPO output as a
parameter in a feedback control loop. Similar in function to an engine management system
this control system has been called the Reactor Management System [RMS]
Successful development of this RMS would allow the WarwickFBR™ technology to reach a
commercially viable level. The system has the potential to divert the 2.8Mt of plastic waste
currently disposed of in landfills or incinerators in the UK. It would support the management
of waste as per the EU Waste Hierarchy by diverting the plastics waste destined for landfill or
incineration to a commercially available product and would reduce the environmental impact
of waste plastic.