Turning Used Diapers Into Diesel

There is nothing that makes me feel guiltier than the number of disposable diapers I have used as a parent. An average of 7000 per child end up in landfills across North America and Western Europe. According to a Toronto Star article published today, there may be a solution. AMEC, a global engineering company, is working on building a facility that will convert used diapers into industrial diesel that will cost about 50 cents per liter.

The Star quotes AMEC vice- president Luciano Piciacchia on the process used:

• Pyrolysis, also known as thermal cracking, involves heating up the diapers up in a closed, controlled environment at temperatures of up to 600C without air, essentially breaking them down thermally.
• “Then you’re bringing it to the next level which is breaking the carbon chains down … and (in the end) they will resemble the fuels which are what we’re going to end up producing,” Piciacchia says.

The promise of pyrolysis keeps getting better.

“The other beauty of it is because this whole thing works in a closed system, there are no emissions,” Piciacchia told the Toronto Star.
The planned facility will start out converting about 30,000 diapers a year, most of which will be collected from hospitals. That is only a about 1/4 of the number that end up in the landfills of Quebec, but I have hopes that this is a huge start toward a greener, and less guilt-ridden, future.