The small Southeast Asian nation of East Timor wants to be the world’s first plastic-neutral nation by recycling all its plastic waste with the help of a technology invented by Australia.
The technology, a catalytic hydrothermal reactor (Cat-HTR), was invented at the University of Sydney by Professors Thomas Maschmeyer and Len Humphreys.
The pair founded Sydney-based Licella Holdings Ltd. to commercialize the technology and Humphreys is now its CEO.
East Timor has signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a US $ 40 million Cat-HTR recycling plant.
Humphreys said that Cat-HTR is highly efficient at recycling “virtually all plastic waste.”
“Cat-HTR is much better equipped to handle plastic waste than current systems, converting all types of plastic waste in just 20 minutes. This has multiple benefits, such as reduced costs for waste producers due to the reusing materials, reducing landfills and less plastic in our oceans, “he said.
Licella’s reactor uses water at near supercritical temperatures to convert waste into high-value liquids, which can be used to produce plastics, fuels, or other chemicals.
East Timor generates around 70 metric tons of plastic waste a day. Demetrio do Amaral de Carvalho, the country’s secretary of state for the environment, said a Cat-HTR plant has the potential to turn Timor-Leste’s entire stream of plastic waste into petrochemicals.
Licella’s talks with the government of East Timor began in December and an agreement was reached in early April.
Licella has licensed Mura Technology Ltd., a joint venture between Licella and London-based Armstrong Energy Ltd., to apply the Cat-HTR platform worldwide outside Australia and New Zealand. Mura waived her license and royalty fees, and the East Timorese government agreed to facilitate the project with supporting land and logistics.
Abel Guterres, East Timor’s ambassador to Australia, New Zealand and the Republic of Fiji, told ABC Radio that plastic water bottles are a major problem in his country.
“People use a lot of plastic, they have no other choice, they buy bottled water. [East Timor is] a young developing country and we need time to build the infrastructure for clean water,” he said.
Guterres said East Timor is “on the right track” to be plastics neutral by 2030.
East Timor was a Portuguese colony until 1975, when it declared independent and was immediately taken over by Indonesia. It fought for independence until 1999, when Indonesia gave up control. With the assistance of the United Nations, it became a sovereign state in 2002. Indonesia still controls the western half of the island of Timor, which is 1,200 miles north of Australia.