U.S.Plastic-to-fuel Market

Drivers & Trends

The global need for an alternative fuel technology due to depleting natural resources, and increasing use of plastic are among the key drivers of the market. Increasing waste plastic generation necessitates for a recycling technology, which reduces landfill waste in addition to converting waste into combustible fuel meeting environmental standards.

Abundant raw material availability coupled with their low cost (sometimes zero cost) attracts more players in this market. However, complexities in the conversion technology as well as high initial setup cost for plastic to fuel conversion facility are witnessed as key constraints for the growth of the U.S. plastic-to-fuel.

U.S. Plastic-to-fuel Market Segmentation by End Product

The U.S. plastic-to-fuel market is poised to reach a valuation of US$ 98.26 million in 2020 from US$ 42.78 million in 2015. The market is expected to witness a CAGR of about 6.79% through 2016 to 2020. The fuels produced using conversion technologies are further sub-segmented as crude oil and diesel, wherein crude oil is anticipated to account for leading market share in 2015.

Plastic-to-fuel conversion technologies primarily include pyrolysis, depolymerisation and gasification. Key players in plastic-to-fuel market utilize pyrolysis technology to convert waste plastic into fuel. However, all the players are have incorporated certain modifications in the process, which they have patented as a proprietary technology.

In some of the processes, pre-processing of waste plastic is necessary, however, market players are developing technologies in order to reduce pre-processing. This is due to the fact that pre-processing incurs costs and in order to increase the profit margin, pre-processing costs needs to be minimum.

U.S. Plastic-to-fuel Market Segmentation by Revenue Generating Model

The U.S. plastic-to-fuel market has been segmented in to three revenue generating models, wherein the market revenues can be generated through sale of processors, sale of fuels and royalties earned by companies with proprietary technologies. The revenue generated through sale of processors accounted for the leading share in 2020.

U.S. Plastic-to-fuel Market: Key Players

The U.S. plastic-to-fuel market is dominated by major players, such as Plastic2Oil, Agilyx Corporation, Vadxx Energy, Green Envirotec Holdings LLC and RES polyflow. This players in the market are joining hands with waste plastic feedstock providers such as industries generating waste plastic, local municipalities, etc. Most of the companies have expansion plans in coming years, which is likely to increase the revenues generated in the U.S. plastic to fuel market.

U.S. Plastic-to-fuel Market: Government Grants

As far as the government grants for recycling technologies is concerned, Pyrolysis, which is widely used to convert waste plastic into fuel is not eligible for recycling grants offered by state governments. This is due to the fact that the technology is not categorized under recycling technology and is called conversion technology. However, it can still fetch government grants for green job creation and credits incentives for starting a unit in rural area. 

U.S. Plastic-to-Fuel Market, Incremental $ Opportunity (US$ Mn), 2015–2020

Download a Comprehensive Report Snapshot

Key Segments Covered

The report analyses U.S. Plastic-to-fuel market on the basis of following segments:

• Revenue generation model
  • Fuel
  • Processors
  • Royalties
• End Products
  • Crude Oil
  • Diesel