Indian Railways to produce diesel from waste plastic

Indian Railways plans to build a plant that will produce diesel fuel from waste plastic, using technology developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research–Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP). The diesel fuel is said to be compliant with Euro 5 sulfur requirement.

Hash Vardhan, minister for science and technology and vice president of CSIR, announced the development during a recent visit to the Indian Institute of Petroleum in Dehradun. No details were given as to when the plant will be built and operational.

“We are the first to have the capability to convert 1 tonne of broken buckets, mugs, toothpaste tubes, bottle caps and other polyolefins products into 850 litres of the cleanest grade of diesel. This is the best news yet for the planet this year,” Vardhan said, “because henceforth plastic waste will be viewed more as a resource than a nuisance.”

The work at the CSIR-IIP, which has also developed jet fuel from jatropha, is aimed towards reducing India’s dependence on crude oil imports and its carbon footprint.

Indian Railways is the largest rail network in the world.