CONVERSION OF POLYTHENE IN TO PETROL?

Being a science student and living in an gadget world, many things come into my minds which are quite basic but it may prove innovative if applied in a particular direction.

One of those innovative idea is “Conversion of Polythene in to Petrol”

Basically both Polythene and Petrol are from the same Hydrocarbon family with Hydrogen & Carbon as its main constituents.

DESCRIPTION	CHEMICAL FORMULA
Polythene	(C2H4)nH2
Petrol	CnH2n+2

Where “C” stands for Carbon and “H” stands for Hydrogen.

My mind strikes by concluding the fact that, if they both are of same family, why can’t we convert the waste polythene into petrol? We are living in a very hi-tech, scientific and over advanced world, but yet we have not developed such technique which recycles the waste material (polythene) in to a useful product (petrol).

As per internet sources, Polyethylene (plastic pipes etc.) demand in India grew from 1946 KTA in 2006 to 3479 KTA in 2012 and domestic production (polythene bags) grew at a slower rate, increasing from 1935 KT in 2006 to only 2332 KT in 2012. 

However, approximately 5.6 million tons per annum (TPA) of plastic waste is generated in country, which is about 15342 tons per day (TPD).

In short,

Domestic Polythene production per year = 23.22 x 10⁷ Kgs

Waste due to use of Domestic Polythene per year = 560 x 10⁷ Kgs

It shows that, there is a large amount of polythene waste available, which can be converted to produce petroleum products, which can be further used as a fuel to produce energy.