Using Plastic Derived Fuel Oil from Polyolefins as a Sulfur-Free Cooking Fuel

Polyolefin plastics are extremely detrimental to the planet because of the time it takes to decompose. Currently, we accrue about 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. Another worldly issue is the detrimental burden that women in third-world countries have from cooking over an open fire. From the results of GC/MS, plastic derived fuel oil has proven to be a cleaner cooking fuel than traditional kerosene because it is sulfur-free. Utilizing these results, both major issues could simultaneously be improved and/or solved. Burning firewood releases harmful, climate-warming emissions that causes forest degradation, which in return, causes losses in erosion control, biodiversity, and flood protection. Plastic derived fuel oil could potentially be a cleaner alternative that has more environmental-friendly emissions and while also helping women who carry these health-related burdens that come from using firewood. The principles of appropriate technology can be applied to allow developing world communities to produce plastic derived fuel oil themselves. Results will be presented consisting of a GC/MS analysis of fuel oil produced from polyolefin plastic waste and compared with traditional kerosene cooking fuel. The results will show that cooking fuel from plastic waste is a viable alternative to biomass and traditional kerosene.