Today's Waste,
Tomorrow's Value
Turning the tide on the plastic disaster using a revolutionary path to carbon negative chemicals like dimethyl ether (DME).
85% of the more than 50 million tons of plastic waste generated in the US annualy is sent to landfills. Plastic pollution poses a severe environmental threat—it harms marine wildlife, damages soil, taints groundwater, and compromises human health. While these effects are increasingly understood, it is lesser-known that plastic waste also releases greenhouse gasses (GHGs) in its degradation. Researchers have estimated that 40% of mixed plastic waste decomposes within 25 years of entering a landfill, releasing GHGs such as methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) while the other 60% remains around for thousands of years. Plastic waste occupies a dangerous middle ground, harming both our geosphere and atmosphere.
The vast majority of carbon-containing chemicals manufactured today (ethylene, propylene, methanol, dimethyl ether, etc.) are produced from virgin fossil fuel feedstocks. For example, dimethyl ether (DME) is mainly produced from natural gas, releasing around 3 lifecycle kg CO2eq per kg of DME. This is equivalent to the emissions from driving 8 miles in a Ford F-150...for every kg of DME manufactured and used. To put this into perspective, 7.42 billion kg of DME were produced last year, and DME is only one of many carbon-containing chemicals produced from fossil-fuel feedstocks. Overall, the chemical manufacturing industry is responsible for 5-6% of global GHG emissions. Cutting down on virgin fossil fuel feedstocks is one way to reduce this number.
Rise Reforming's patent-pending catalytic process converts plastic waste to carbon negative DME (cnDME) at an unprecedented efficiency, eliminating plastic waste and reducing GHG emissions from the chemical manufacturing industry.
