Fuelling up with waste: Kenyan company makes petrol from plastic

(3 Oct 2023)
KENYA PLASTIC TO FUEL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTIONS:
LENGTH: 8:00
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Murang'a, Kenya - 15 September 2023
1. Various of Progreen employees sorting out plastic
2. Various of employees shredding the plastic
3. Various of employees picking up shredded plastic
4. Various of employees putting shredded plastic into a reactor
5. SOUNDBITE (English) James Muritu, founder, Progreen:
"Progreen Innovation is a refuse-derived fuel manufacturer. We turn waste materials into usable fuel. Currently, our focus is waste plastic. So, waste plastic, we take it through a pyrolysis process and we end up with usable fuel which is alternative fuel for petrol and diesel engines."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Nairobi, Kenya - 19 May 2023
6. Various of the Dandora dumpsite, diggers and people moving the trash
7. Various of Eunice Achieng, Dandora resident, who depends on the dumpsite to make a living by collecting plastics and selling them, at the dumpsite
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Murang'a, Kenya - 15 September 2023
8. Various of employees fuelling a fire to heat up the reactor using briquettes
9. Various of liquid fuel created by pyrolysis coming out of a pipe
10. Various of liquid fuel being used to power a small engine for the shredder
11. Various of liquid fuel being used to power a chainsaw
12. Various of employee using a chainsaw powered by liquid fuel created by pyrolysis
13. SOUNDBITE (English) James Muritu, founder, Progreen Innovations Limited:
"Our production process entails a couple of steps, first you'll get the waste plastic, the waste plastic will need to be shredded. After it is shredded, it has to be cleaned, and it is loaded into the reactor. After coming from the reactor, there is a heating process; the heating process does not make use of electricity, it makes use of our own fuel which we refer to as briquette. The briquette is made of waste biomass and a combination of the black char, which comes as waste from the reactor. Then, there is a condensation process. After condensing, then there's an evaporation process. Actually, you vaporise in the condenser, then you harvest the fuel."
14. Various of Muritu putting the liquid fuel created by pyrolysis in his car and driving away
15. SOUNDBITE (English) James Muritu, founder, Progreen Innovations Limited :
"We produce two kinds of alternative fuel, the first fuel is alternative petrol. The alternative petrol is used for small to medium-sized machines. So we have power saws, which is a chainsaw, water pumps, lawnmowers as well, and any small machine, that fuel will be usable. For the alternative diesel fuel that's usable by heavy-duty diesel engines: generators, it's used by vehicles as well, in my own vehicle that's what I use."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nairobi, Kenya - 28 September 2023
16. Various set up shots of Nickson Otieno, climate change expert and sustainability consultant
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Nickson Otieno, climate change expert and sustainability consultant:
"The most carbon-effective way of dealing with plastic waste is not to produce plastics at all. So we need to innovate to find alternatives to plastics. But while we have the plastics; the ones that we have already produced, we need to explore all options. And I think pyrolysis and low-tech, locally produced processes like the one the innovator has come up with, should be encouraged."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nairobi, Kenya - 19th September 2023
18. Various of petrol station serving normal fuel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nairobi, Kenya - 28 September 2023
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nairobi, Kenya - 19 September 2023
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[@roninthedestroyer8958]

Kenya is a great country and has a great government. I wish America was as great as them. They are way advanced

[@ProGreenInnovations]

thanks. In Kenya, we really try hard to think "without the box". What we lack is genuine support..

[@AaronKwizera-hb8ku]

Hello