AT ISSUE Martin Coles, Matrix Polymers
Reducing Gas Dependency in Rotomoulding – What Are Our Options?
Image courtesy of AMS Belgium
In the previous edition of RotoWorld® I raised the alarm that rotomoulding as we know it is under long-term threat, due to our industry’s reliance on cheap, efficient, and readily available natural gas. The world is rapidly turning away from fossil fuels and country after country is announcing new measures to reduce carbon emissions and promote greener forms of energy. A good example is New Zealand’s proposed total ban on all new installations using natural gas. What is our industry going to do? In my last article, I talked about the possibility of converting conventional rotomoulding machines from gas to electrically heated ovens. This is happening on a limited scale, but the ovens are more expensive to buy and to run and there can be practical difficulties relating to the very high electrical load requirements at start-up. There are some novel solutions being created to overcome 30 ROTOWORLD® AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2021
some of these issues. Dhanu Patell at Reinhardt Teknik in India is developing a hybrid machine, which uses diesel or gas for the ramp-up, to avoid the connected load problem with electricity, and then the machine switches to run on electricity which is sometimes generated ‘in-house’ from solar. Another option to consider is bio-gas. This is a growing renewable source of fuel that is produced from the breaking down of organic matter, such as food scraps and animal waste. There is much talk in places like New Zealand about replacing natural gas with biogas, but clearly the infrastructure to produce this is considerable and not within the control of the rotomoulder. Biogas is also just a stepping stone to a zero-carbon world as burning this energy source still produces CO2. Are there other creative solutions? Oven-less rotomoulding? If you take away the need for the oven and you directly heat the mould then you are going to need to use less energy. Is this the solution?
