Recycling and resource management specialist SITA UK (Maidenhead / UK; www.sita.co.uk) has signed an agreement to use the pyrolysis technology of Cynar (London / UK; www.cynarplc.com) in a series of new plants to be built in the UK to convert plastic waste into diesel fuel called "End of Life Plastic Diesel". The first plant is scheduled to be on stream in the greater London area by the end of 2011.

In the first tranche of development, the subsidiary of Suez Environnement (Paris / France; www.suez-environnement.com) will build 10 plants at the rate of two to three per year. Each will convert some 6,000 t of mixed plastic waste annually to produce more than 4m litres of diesel fuel. Up to 100 jobs will be created. David Palmer-Jones, chief executive of SITA UK, termed the deal a landmark agreement for treating waste plastic that cannot be recycled.

The pyrolysis and distillation technology to be used by SITA has been demonstrated at a plant Cynar established in Portloaise, Ireland. It is licensed from Ozmotech (Melbourne / Australia; www.ozmotech.com), which also has signed an agreement with EnvoSmart Technologies (Roosendaal / The Netherlands; www.envosmart.com) to build as many as 31 plastic waste-to-diesel fuel installations across Europe – see Plasteurope.com of 07.03.2006.

Fuel produced by the technology is comparable to conventional diesel without the need for further refining, although cleaner and with a lower sulphur content. It is expected to be produced at below the cost of normal diesel and should have a lower carbon footprint.