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This self sufficient family, living on a very remote island, makes their own fuel from plastic
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View Reddit by Enshag – View Source
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This self sufficient family, living on a very remote island, makes their own fuel from plastic
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View Reddit by Enshag – View Source
Pretty damn cool setup. A little shocking that *so much* plastic seems to wash up on the beach. Though it’s hard to get a sense of how ‘remote’ this guy’s location is and the extent to which that may be local pollution.
I wouldn’t have thought it was so simple so convert plastics into diesel. Although I suspect this process must be at least a little dirty. What kind of byproducts does it make? Would have appreciated a more thorough explanation of the science behind this and the trade offs involved.
Looks like this couple is living a very fulfilling life.
In theory, you need only 3% of the energy of the diesel produced to pyrolyse the plastic – with the right setup, you could stop using wood and use the produced diesel to run the still.
A fire like that isn’t very efficient but the energy payoff is so great that it hardly matters: you need ~1.3MJ/kg of energy to pyrolyse polyethylene, the product (~80% mass of the PE) has about 43MJ/kg.
‘Green’ (i.e. not properly aged and dried) wood has ~10MJ/kg when burned, lots of energy lost in that setup of course – but it’s more sustainable than I thought.
I love his aquaponics setup, he has a good thing going with the trade and barter with other locals, and he’s clearly trying his best. Really great on his part because he and his wife certainly work hard to make their dream a reality.
However, the location contributes a lot to this self sufficiency. It’s a lot more difficult in other parts of the world. The means he’s espousing to become energy SUFFICIENT are not *efficient* for a large segment of the world. I suspect you could do a feasibility study on the breakdown of energy input and output on a large scale with these plastics and somehow make it work, but it would never be as good for the environment as either not making the plastics in the first place, or recycling them to offset the creation of new product.
There are better and more interesting forms of bio diesel out there that don’t involve plastics, but do involve more byproducts they probably don’t have in his location. I suspect he’d encourage that so I’m not criticizing his efforts. I just think that there is something to be said for the large scale efficiency of modern communities and city living. We can use far fewer resources in a much more efficient manner by living close together, still without forsaking nature or eco-conscious goals. Most people don’t – but we can. Modern technology can yield much better results than an old diesel generator and burning plastic, and you don’t have to give up modern living to do it.
Why’d they play the video backwards at 1:48?
for how long.
I hate the word self sufficient here because in reality they are dependent on others. They trade and sell things to other people in order to sustain their lifestyle.
So he is just burning plastic and creating greenhouses gases… the hell does he think regular fuel is?