Japanese companies turn waste into energy: 1 ton of clothes produces 700 liters of ethanol

According to foreign media reports, at the end of the movie "Back to the Future", Dr. Emmett Brown, the mad scientist, re-emerged with his time shuttle DeLorean, which converts garbage from a recycling reactor called Mr. Fusion. After the energy as a driving force. Today, Japanese company Recycler Jeplan is building a real version of Mr. Fusion, for which they even purchased a copy of DeLorean to help promote. Recycler Jeplan is committed to extracting cotton fibers from used clothing, but turning it into energy.

Takao and the replica DeLorean car

According to Jeplan, 1 ton of discarded clothing can produce about 700 liters of ethanol, which saves land and water. The company has also developed a method to recycle polyester . This compound is incorporated into many fabrics to reduce cost, increase durability, and resist wrinkles. Jeplan says that about 60% of the world's annual clothing is made from polyester, which can be a valuable resource if broken down and reused in new clothing.

Recycling of plastics, paper, and metals is common, but most of the clothing produced every year in the world ends up in landfills and incinerators. “Only 10% of clothing is recycled, including second-hand sales, in every country,” said Jeplan co-founder and CEO Masaki Takao.

Takao and his team are developing a technology to extract polyester from clothing through multiple distillation and evaporation cycles. Compared to the remanufacturing of these materials, the program produces only half the carbon dioxide of the former. However, the hard part is that the extracted polyester needs to be of higher purity. Takao said: "No one is doing this because it is very difficult."

Waste clothing is placed in the machine of Jeplan factory near Hiroshima

In 2007, graduated Takao and textile salesman Michihiko Iwamoto founded Jeplan. The company worked with Osaka University to develop "cotton recycling" technology. In 2010, Jeplan began commercial operations and provided recycling consulting services for companies such as Mitsubishi and NTT Docomo. Since its inception, Jeplan has raised approximately $13 million in funding, including Docomo and venture capital firm Jafco.

In Back to the Future, Dr. Brown dropped banana peel and half-can of beer into a coffee machine-sized Mr. Fusion reactor. Jeplan's program requires a factory. The company is building a plant in Kyushu Island in the south and is expected to start operations this summer, handling 2,000 tons of clothing a year.

In order to promote Jeplan's recycling initiatives, Takao set a full-size reproduction of DeLorean in the way back to the future. After Takao submitted a request to Universal Pictures, the latter sold the car to him and granted him marketing rights. Takao did not disclose how much he had spent on it, but it cost him $44,000 to air the car to Japan.