Sports car to use plastic-to-fuel technology

A 1,100 horsepower (hp) sports car, or “hypercar,” made by Italy’s Bertone Inc. has been designed to run on a custom-blended plastic-scrap-to-fuel formula. “The GB110 is the first high performance car that will be supplied with fuel made out of plastic waste, a significant innovation in the automotive industry,” Bertone says in a December news release.

Bertone describes the GB110 as a “limited-edition state-of-the-art hypercar [with] 1,100 hp and 1,100 newton meters (Nm) of max torque.” Just 33 units of the GB110 will be produced, says the firm.

Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci, co-owners of Bertone, saying they are “dedicated to innovation in both design and environmental sustainability,” partnered with United States-based Select Fuel to engineer the car to be powered by a custom plastics-to-fuel formula.

“We believe that depollution will require different solutions with combinations of technologies,” CEO Jean-Franck Ricci says. “Plastic waste needs to be treated as a valuable resource. Through our partnership with Select Fuel we take what was once waste and convert it back into its original form.”

Henderson, Nevada-based Select Fuel lists Bertone as its first partner in its quest to “convert [scrap] polycarbonate materials into sustainable and renewable fuel through our Advanced Plastic to Fuel Technology.”

Select Fuel says it is configuring its conversion process to handle not only plastic scrap, but also fats, oils and grease (FOG), grass clippings, food scraps, scrap wood, agricultural and forestry residues, and “energy crops” such as camelina or rapeseed.

The portion of the Select Fuel website describing its technology refers to the collection, sorting and shredding of plastic scrap followed by an illustration of a closed chamber labeled as the “conversion process.” The company describes that process as “advanced technology” that yields a “a valuable petrochemical byproduct—a source of fuel for all ICE (internal combustion engine) power-plants.”