A company that demonstrated its ability to convert plastics into an oil that can be turned into fuel in Logansport last year continues to seek funding for its next steps.
Waste2Fuel built a machine with the help of Logansport-based Dilling Group in 2015 to test its process of breaking down plastics into an oil that can be refined into gasoline and diesel. The company has completed about 20 runs since April 2015.
Engineering studies and a pilot plant would pave the way toward Waste2Fuel's goal of a commercial plant.
The company needs more than $30 million to get there, however.
Steve Hastings, executive chairman of Waste2Fuel, said the company's "still having a lot of trouble having anyone to bite for that."
Hastings and Stephen Bell, CEO and president of Waste2Fuel, speculate potential backers have been reluctant to invest in their alternative fuel source because of recent decreases in oil prices.
Last year the company expressed intentions to build its first commercial plant locally.
"We're still hopeful," Hastings said. "We still want to base the project in Indiana and we've got a lot of emotional attachment to the Logansport area."
Bell agreed.
"I can't really find a better place to be with all the rail that's there," he said.
But other communities have expressed interest in working with the company too.
Bell said Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is interested in helping the company get the funding for a commercial plant.
A development group in Cleveland, Ohio has invited Waste2Fuel to take part in a waste park that aims to divert not only plastics, but metals and glasses from landfills for other uses, Hastings said.
The hiatus resulting from the wait for further investments has Waste2Fuel considering other uses for the technology as well. Bell said he intends to return to Logansport in the near future to test the machine's ability to break down polystyrene — the kind of plastic used in foam cups — into a liquid that can be used to create new polystyrene products.
A Chinese inventor developed the technology in the 1990s. Environmental Technology Systems Limited, out of London, England, owns the rights to the technology while Waste2Fuel has exclusive rights for it in North America.