Recovering 10,000 kg of plastic waste from the Mediterranean sea and converting part of it into electricity and heat in a circular economy perspective: this is the double challenging objective that Marevivo and TEZENIS, a well-known brand of the Calzedonia group, have set for themselves, giving life to a partnership in the name of sea protection “Together for the Mediterranean Sea”.
The technological partner of this important project is the Turin-based company IRIS, engaged since 2012 in the development of applications of plasma and laser technology in industrial and civil situations. IRIS is a member of MESAP, the regional innovation hub “Smart Products and Manufacturing” and is an active part of a wide network of collaborations with a European dimension that includes the most excellent research institutes for the issues of transition to the circular economy and innovative applications of laser and plasma technologies. The development of the Green Plasma device created by IRIS is precisely in this direction: a system for treating waste and transforming it into energy that has already completed the entire technological validation process by successfully carrying out experimental tests in the Italian ports of Genoa and Ancona. And it is precisely in Ancona, where IRIS is engaged in a research project with Prof. Regoli, Director of the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (DiSVA) of the Polytechnic University of Marche – in partnership with the Garbage Group – that is the meeting between IRIS and the Marevivo Association was born and immediately translated into the desire to join the “Together for the Mediterranean Sea” initiative to make its technology available.
The project envisages cleaning up the sea for a consideration of 1 million plastic bottles, collected thanks to the use of the Garbage Group’s ecological boats “Pelikan”. Subsequently these wastes are treated with Green Plasma which, thanks to the high temperatures reached (it can even reach 5000 ° degrees), allows any organic compound to be transformed into gas, separating it from any inorganic matrix. The treatment process is very efficient as a very hydrogen-rich syngas (> 40%) is obtained which can be easily converted into electricity. The advantage of this process is also linked to the fact that the entire treatment takes place in the absence of oxygen, without combustion, so the waste does not burn and does not produce ashes or harmful emissions.
“Thanks to years of research and development we have arrived at a safe, efficient and compact solution that transforms waste into a resource – comments Manuel Lai, CEO of IRIS -. Now we have an even greater challenge to face: using our patented system. Green Plasma to develop circular economy projects, with the aim of accelerating the transition to a world without waste, combining mitigation and prevention in a single innovative service for coastal communities and all isolated contexts that need to be self-sufficient “.
In addition to the concrete objective of eliminating 10 tons of plastic from the sea, this initiative that sees the academic world, that of businesses and associations lined up together, also has an important value on the front of scientific research: the Polytechnic University of Marche will analyze the specific energy yield for the different plastics collected in the sea, thus introducing a new indicator for the sustainability models of environmental recovery actions, thus laying the foundations for a new model for the management of plastics pollution in the sea.
“This is an extremely ambitious and innovative project that will save tons of plastic waste at the sea and, thanks to the use of new technologies available, experiment its use in a circular economy” said Raffaella Giugni,