ECI has chosen to focus on pyrolysis because it represents the ideal coming together of environment and technology.

Unlike other energy alternatives, such as solar or wind, the application of pyrolysis energy recovery and conversion technology provides an opportunity to clean up the world whilst powering it.

Using our proprietary pyrolysis technology and systems, ECI is engaged in the conversion of waste plastic from landfill sites and refuse treatment facilities into premium crude (equivalent) oil, which is subsequently refined to produce a range of transport grade fuels and other petroleum product – thereby providing the dual advantages of reducing waste plastics stockpiles whilst also producing hydrocarbon fuels capable of powering internal combustion engines or generating electricity.

Impressive Results
ECI pyrolysis technology outperforms direct combustion of non-recyclable plastics – to deliver a cleaner, more efficient energy extraction process than this historic and environmentally polluting alternative treatment method. In fact, our system recovers in excess of 5 times more BTU’s than is the case for traditional incineration of plastics. [A British Thermal Unit (BTU) is the standard measurement used to state the amount of energy that a fuel has as well as the amount of output of any heat generating device].

Furthermore, our conversion technology results in the production of oil that has a considerably lower carbon intensity than new sources of virgin crude.

In terms of financial upside, the principal focus at ECI is squarely directed toward the production of premium grade oil - THE highest value energy commodity. Oil far outpaces even the BTU-equivalent price attaching to electricity generation!

A typical ECI Series 10 Pyrolysis Conversion System recycles 10 tons of plastic waste and produces in the order of 7,500 litres of premium grade oil a day.

The driver for ECI's engineering initiative (using technology and systems which have evolved over a development timeframe taking in the past 8 years), and the rationale in support of the tremendous wealth generation opportunity which subsequently presents, is an appreciation that just 9 plastic shopping bags collectively contain enough embodied petroleum energy to drive a motor vehicle 1 km.

Our proprietary pyrolysis system can uniquely take in a range of plastics, and produce premium grade oil (akin to sweet crude) with an extremely impressive process-to-energy ratio. This Energy Returned On Energy Invested (EROEI) is consistently in excess of 6 to 1 (> 6 barrels of oil can be produced by expending the energy equivalent of one barrel).

This figure (EROEI of > 6 to 1) is more than double that which now applies in respect to conventional oil production (process-to-energy ratio of 3 to 1 and declining) and far out-performs biofuels, most of which currently operate at a negative (below 1) ratio, requiring the greater usage of energy in production than is received in the resultant end product.

Indeed, although rated the most efficient of the biofuel category, ethanol only carries an EROEI of less than 1.7, which translates into having to spend two barrels of oil equivalent to produce just three.