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A Lebanese retiree produces his own fuel, for better or for worse

Maroun Gemayel distills petrol, diesel, and propane from plastic waste heated to over 400C but experts warn of the health and environmental dangers of such practices.

A Lebanese retiree produces his own fuel, for better or for worse

Maroun Gemayel separating petrol from fuel oil, September 2022. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine)

Under the blazing sun of a vacant lot near his home on the outskirts of Shwayya, Metn, Maroun Gemayel piles up compressed plastic bottles and plastic bags.

He places them in a large metal tank covered with stones, and sets them alight.

The goal is to distill petrol, diesel, and propane from plastic waste heated to over 400 degrees.

If this practice seemed extravagant at the beginning of the economic crisis, in a Lebanon plagued by severe electricity rationing, where a monthly subscription to private generators costs at least double the minimum wage, it seems a “cheaper alternative.”

Disregarding health and environmental hazards, Gemayel has put all his energy into his craft oil production.

Working ‘by trial and error’

“When the lira started to depreciate drastically against the dollar, things got more serious,” explains Gemayel, a retired ex-scrap metal dealer.

“On Aug. 12, 2021, I started the installation by trial and error, on my own. I used the iron scrap that I had collected. I made five machines before the sixth, completed in early January 2023, proved functional,” he points out.

Rain, snow, scorching heat, power rationing — the arduous working conditions in his mountain village did not stop him from tending to his labors system, 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

After having ignited the tank with a capacity of nearly 200 kilograms of compressed plastic waste, this 60-year-old, bereft of mask or gloves, waits for the fumes to travel along cooled pipes before condensing into liquid fuel.

After an hour, Gemayel begins to collect petrol, diesel, and propane, at a rate of about 15 liters per hour for each kilogram of pyrolyzed plastic (heated at high temperature to obtain oil or propane).

He proceeds to further distill these hydrocarbons for own use — to run his car, his private generator, his stove, and a heater in winter.

Since the onset of winter, Gemayel has consumed more than 12 barrels of diesel that he had stored in a plot of land next to his home, near a green space.

He keeps the precious fuel for his personal use and intends to offer a portion of it to others, but only “people with modest incomes and in need, like me.”

Environmental and health hazards

The distillation process is not without danger, experts say.

According to Joseph Matta, director of the laboratories of the Industrial Research Institute (IRI), this process “risks leaving persistent organic pollutants in the environment, such as dioxins.”

“These substances, insoluble in water and soluble in fat, could persist in nature and accumulate in the human body,” he says, warning of the endocrine disruption and carcinogenic risk they could cause.

“The chemical treatments required for the products obtained cannot be carried out properly outside the laboratory,” Matta adds.

Samer Aouad, a professor of chemistry at Balamand University, who works on the reforming of non-recycled plastics into synthesis propane, seems to concur.

“Distillation carried out outside the laboratory does not remove impurities from the fuels,” he says. “The products obtained are therefore not directly usable and the smoke released during their formation is particularly toxic.”

Aouad also stresses the need to store fuels in a “well-controlled and ventilated” space.

“A simple spark can trigger a powerful explosion if storage conditions are not favorable,” warns Aouad.

Not turning a deaf ear to criticism, Gemayel tirelessly works to improve his installation in order to upgrade the quantity and quality of the fuel obtained. He says he also plans to have them tested by a laboratory.

The sixty year old is certain that the pyrolysis process, carried out in the open air in a field hundreds of meters away from the neighboring houses, does not present “any health or ecological risk.”

This story was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour, translated by Sahar Ghoussoub.

Under the blazing sun of a vacant lot near his home on the outskirts of Shwayya, Metn, Maroun Gemayel piles up compressed plastic bottles and plastic bags.He places them in a large metal tank covered with stones, and sets them alight.The goal is to distill petrol, diesel, and propane from plastic waste heated to over 400 degrees.If this practice seemed extravagant at the beginning of the economic...