27-Year-Old SA Man Turns Plastic Into Fuel. Sibusiso Shabangu is a 27-year-old man, from Nkomanzi Local Municipality in Mpumalanga, who took the world’s problem of plastics and turned it into something that could help car owners, while also saving the environment.
Sibusiso Shabangu is a 27-year-old man, from Nkomazi Local Municipality in Mpumalanga, who took the world’s problem of plastics and turned it into something that could help car owners, while also saving the environment. According to SABC News, the man is changing plastic into fuel in order to alleviate the rising petrol prices in South Africa. The idea started when he was testing with plastic, that’s when he was motivated to make liquid fuel with plastic.
Sibusiso Shabangu explained to the SABC News how the idea manifested. “I cooked it, tried to open it while it was on the fire. Then the steam went up with a flame and smell of petrol. I had an idea that I might take out the petrol,” says the 27-year-old. The plastic is cooked in a sealed air reactor of a temperature of 400 degrees Celsius. The plastic makes diesel, gas and petrol. He says that he uses the leftovers of his material to make candles and polish. He can make 5 litres of petrol, 2.5 litres of petrol and gas with 10kg of plastics.
The Nkomazi Local Municipality in Mpumalanga is fully behind the man’s innovation. Cyril Riphinga, the municipality’s representative, says the municipality will look into helping the man with anything he needs such as trademarking his product. “Our local economic development department in the municipality is looking into that matter. They are engaging municipal lawyers to make sure that they assist with trademark and all related issues,” says the municipality’s representative. According to SABC News, the people who have used his biofuel are quite happy with the product.
by Alexandra Ramaite
