Plastic waste is a huge problem, and dealing with it is a challenge that causes a global environmental crisis.
In Kenya, engineer Joseph Muritu has found a way to address the growing plastic problem by turning it into usable fuel in a manner that makes economic sense. He uses pyrolysis technology to process and extract fuels from plastic waste.
Mr Muritu, who spent over 20 years building software and hardware systems in Africa, North America and Australia, uses a locally assembled reactor to turn plastic into fuel.
“In the last three years, I got an interest in chemistry and began a backyard experiment to recover aluminium out of waste aluminium materials and out of a sheer accident one time, we melted plastic, which gave us some jelly liquid, and from it, an interest came about, and we started researching. With this, we got into deep research into the field and we haven’t stopped,” says Mr Muritu.
“Out of the many pilot tests we have conducted, we realised that it’s a particular type of plastic that works, but it is after we spent a lot of time trying out all kinds of plastic that we were able to narrow down to some specific type of plastic that will give one the right fuel.”
With this, they developed a petrol equivalent product, which is usable in small and mid-sized petrol engines and a diesel equivalent for heavy machinery, generators and engines. The diesel fuel works well for all diesel engines, including those of vehicles.
His business partner, Michael Nthenge, a mechanical engineer, fabricated all the compartments of the project. To fund the business, Mr Muritu dug into his pocket and invested more than Sh5 million in savings and still counting.
They have hired seven employees.
Mr Muritu works with volunteer groups, scrap yard dealers and women in collecting plastic waste material for fuel production in Kenol, Murang’a, where they are based.
The employees sort the plastic waste to get the ideal plastic required for fuel processing.
“Our team knows what to pick,” he says.
The required raw material is then shredded into smaller pieces, which are washed to remove any impurities. The material is then loaded into a reactor component box and closed up tightly to ensure it is free of oxygen.
The materials are heated in two cycles determined by different temperatures. There is a temperature control system that determines the outcome.
The first cycle produces heavy fuel or crude oil and the second one refines the product.
“Here we regulate the temperatures to either come up with a petrol equivalent or a diesel equivalent, which is again a two-shift process,” he says.
However, Mr Muritu says the venture encounters some challenges, including inadequate funding, convincing some consumers to use their products and finding the right talent to work with, given that the founders are the main brains behind the innovation.
“We have an environmental impact assessment permit from the National Environment Management Authority, allowing us to operate for one year.
“We have also patented our idea and also created a trademark. The certification process with Kebs (the Kenya Bureau of Standards) is underway and will be completed within a few months,” says Mr Muritu.
He says they have not yet commercialised their products because they want to ensure that they do everything in the right way and format to comply with all the statutory and regulatory requirements.
“We are still in the pilot stage and we have involved a few willing users. It wasn’t easy to convince people to test it for us, but those using it are giving us positive feedback, and we can fine-tune and improve our products. We have close to 12 users. I am also one of the users,” says Mr Muritu.
The entrepreneur expressed his hopes of commercialising and launching their products before the end of this year and expanding to other towns by next year.
