Sustane Technologies secures first commercial customer for waste plastic-derived diesel

Sustane Technologies announced Payless Fuels as the first customer for its waste-plastic-derived fuel, a major milestone.

By processing plastic that would otherwise have gone to the landfill, Sustane is making a market-grade fuel that can replace traditional fuel sources. In Payless Fuels’ case, the fuel will be used by select commercial customers to replace fossil fuels they buy to heat their businesses. Sustane will be supplying up to 30,000 litres per week. By using this sustainable heating oil, Payless customers will be reducing their carbon intensity by around 50% relative to traditional refined fossil fuel.

​Sustane has deployed in Nova Scotia a first-of-kind technology to convert end of life plastics, devising a process that separates plastics it then processes from those used in traditional recycling streams (e.g. PET), and those that have no existing market (e.g. LD polyethylene). Further, Sustane’s synthetic diesel and naphtha have attracted the attention of large scale international petro-chemical manufacturers that plan to use Sustane’s product to produce more “new” plastics – a true circular plastic economy,

Sustane CEO, Peter Vinall comments, “Having a first commercial customer is significant – obviously demonstrating the quality and trust in our product and the longer-term opportunities to service key industries like forestry, farming and the fisheries.”

Payless Fuels owner, Andew Publicover states, “We are excited to begin our work with Sustane and provide select commercial customers with the most sustainable fuels. Sustane shares our same corporate values and is an ideal partner for us.”

In Canada alone, we recycle just nine per cent of our plastics with the balance dumped in landfills and incinerators or tossed away as litter. Sustane can divert waste which was previously destined for the landfill. For every tonne of municipal waste that Sustane processes, it reduces CO2 emissions by two to three tonnes. In a year, for a typical plant, this translates to reducing 216,000 tonnes of GHG emissions which is equivalent to taking 50,000 cars off the road.

Nova Scotia Innovation Hub executive director, Rod Badcock comments, “This is a big day for Sustane, and we believe this is only the beginning of an exciting journey ahead. Smart, responsible companies like Payless Fuels understand the opportunity created by new innovations in Nova Scotia’s bieconomy to create sustainable, long-term impacts.”

Sustane finances and operates its plant in exchange for access to a secure municipal waste supply at a cost competitive share of the landfill’s gate, or tipping fee. This breakthrough approach has a lower carbon footprint, delivering higher value product streams that can be sold at improved margins. Best of all, the process is scalable, significantly impacts GHG/leachate emissions, all on a global scale.