The Caribbean clean up project that’s bananas!

ELN spoke to the CEO of a firm converting plastic waste into hydrogen to clean up banana packaging

Bananas’ plastic packaging will be converted into clean hydrogen fuel for the Island of Martinique in the Caribbean.

In Martinique, one of the largest waste streams is the plastic bags used to protect the island’s main export product, bananas.

It is estimated that the island uses an estimated 3,000 tonnes of these plastic films every year.

An innovative project promises to convert around 9,000 tonnes of Martinican waste into renewable hydrogen every year.

ELN spoke to Ways2H Chief Executive Officer Jean-Louis Kindler about the project: “The facility will have a processing capacity of 24 tonnes of waste and will produce between 1.5 to 2 tonnes of hydrogen per day. We expect to have the system operational in early 2024.

“Martinique has a problem, as an island it has one landfill which is very close to saturation and will soon be closed down. So, the island is looking for solutions to reduce the waste and our system has been selected particularly because of its ability to accept a mix of different waste streams. So, we will be processing a mix of streams that includes these bananas plastic films and even old furniture.”

He added that apart from these types of waste, there are still more that cannot be processed locally and have to be sent to France, which is around 8,000 kilometres away.

The hydrogen produced by this technology will be used for power generation and as a fuel for vehicles.

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