Edinburgh-based company Skyrora is building a mobile, modular plant that turns non-recyclable plastic waste into rocket fuel. Humanity is on its way to settlement on the Moon and Mars. As targets become more ambitious, these require larger rockets that can carry people and cargo to planets. However, rocket launches require a lot of fuel and produce more carbon emissions.

Skyrora’s approach to solving this problem allows rockets to be launched without interruption, as it significantly solves the problem of plastic waste every time. The technology developed by the company turns plastic waste into a highly efficient rocket fuel called Ecosene because its composition is similar to premium kerosene.

Skyrora uses a pyrolysis technique that uses heat to break down a substance without oxygen and turn it into a liquid oil. Ecosene technology performs pyrolysis at low temperatures, and the resulting fuel can be used to refuel rockets or even an ordinary car.

According to the Supercluster company, depending on the quality of the plastic used, 650-750 liters of fuel can be obtained from each ton of plastic waste.

The technology the company uses allows even low-grade plastics to be used in the process, where previous ones could not. Therefore, metallized packaging from snacks and chips, as well as plastics such as polystyrene and polyester, can be used in this process. Fuel produced this way is significantly cheaper and will likely cost one-fifth of the $13 per gallon space companies pay for rocket fuel today.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that 400 million tons of plastic waste is produced annually, of which only nine percent is recycled, with the rest either dumped or incinerated. Burning one ton of plastic releases about 900 kilowatts of energy, according to the company.

However, when the same amount of waste is converted to Ecosen, it can release 10 times more energy. Skyrora is working to create fully scalable and modular facilities that can be delivered to a plastic waste collection point and deployed to turn it into fuel. Source