Talk:Thermal depolymerization

This article conflates TDP and TCP
As far as I can tell from external sources, Thermal Depolymerization (TDP) is the general term for the class of processes this article covers, and "Thermal Conversion Process" (TCP) is a proprietary name used by Changing World Technologies and related companies (including Renewable Energy Solutions a.k.a. RES-Energy, their joint venture with ConAgra/Butterball) for their particular version of TDP. I think this article often mistakenly uses the terms interchangeably. Also, in contrast to what the "Similar Processes" section says, TCP is not limited to manure and vegetable waste; the Carthage plant uses it for turkey offal, and the CWT website says it can be used to convert tires, plastics, etc.

Sorry to complain and not fix, I just feel like a lot of changes would be needed to fix this, and I'm not familiar enough with the subject to feel like I can do a good job of fixing these errors. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 17.206.24.191 (talk • contribs)

Limitations, comment 2
Under Limitations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization#Limitations), it states: "However, the methane in the feedstock is recovered and burned to heat the water that is an essential part of the process." Methane is only one of the gases produced and is only a small part of that. The gas is more like producer gas (also known as 'Town Gas').

Yours sincerely

Alan Erskine alan.erskine1@bigpond.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.188.35.7 (talk) 01:32, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

here needs some photos. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 42.0.5.42 (talk) 13:45, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080515195211/http://www.age.uiuc.edu/bee/RESEARCH/tcc/tccpaper3.htm to http://www.age.uiuc.edu/bee/RESEARCH/tcc/tccpaper3.htm
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Requested move 15 March 2021

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: Not moved per WP:COMMONNAME, page content can simply be added to reflect both outcomes of thermal depolymerization. (non-admin closure) Project Osprey (talk) 11:09, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

Thermal depolymerization → Plastic pyrolysis – Depolymerisation would convert the polymer back into monomers, which can then be recycled back into fresh plastic. In plastic recycling this is called chemical recycling. What this article is describing is the conversion of waste plastic into a fuel, like in pyrolysis oil. A re-name would allow better wiki-linking between the various plastic recycling/degradation/waste pages Project Osprey (talk) 11:25, 15 March 2021 (UTC) —Relisting. SK2242 (talk) 18:25, 22 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Oppose on grounds offered. This process is routinely referred to as "Thermal depolymerization" in the media.  I'm not really sure if "plastic pyrolysis" is the same thing (and thus should be mentioned as a notable synonym in the article) or if it's just a different topic/article that doesn't exist yet (in which case this article definitely shouldn't be moved), but Wikipedia is not primarily concerned with the preferred technical term, but rather the WP:COMMONNAME in general usage.  I see some Google News hits on "Plastic pyrolysis" but not really tons, and some of them are low-quality press releases or the like...   is there evidence that this term is both the same topic, and now more prominent than "thermal depolymerization"?   SnowFire (talk) 17:58, 24 March 2021 (UTC)
 * WP:COMMONNAME is important. My plan had been to have two different pages as the two outcomes seemed very different. however, the underlying process is depolymerisation in both cases. An alternative could be to re-write the page to cover both topics. Depending on how that goes we could discuss a page split at the end? --Project Osprey (talk) 10:00, 25 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I'm not really an expert, but I'd suggest to just go ahead and make a separate article then (or an article in Draft / User space if you're not sure there's enough "meat"). If the article on Plastic pyrolysis is "substantial" enough, just make it; otherwise, can merge it in as a section of this article worst comes to worst.  SnowFire (talk) 20:37, 25 March 2021 (UTC)
 * It's fine. It'll re-write and see where that take things.--Project Osprey (talk) 11:09, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.