As often happens in the history of inventions, an everyday problem has turned into an opportunity to rethink domestic energy. When Dan Caris He discovered that printer cartridges couldn't be recycled, so he decided to find a way to turn plastic into electricity. Does it work?
A wonder box for home energy
It always makes me smile when someone claims to have invented a revolutionary device the size of a shoebox. Yet, this time the story has some interesting twists: charismatic, I would say. Yes, because the invention is named after its creator. Carismatic (from Caris) promises to convert plastic waste into domestic energy that can be used to light the house, recharge the car battery or, listen up, power industrial plants.
Not bad for something that lives in the closet, right? But don't call your energy supplier to cancel your contract.
How it works (on paper)
The system, for which patents were filed in 2022, is made up of 8-10 independent systems that combine electrochemical, thermal, and mechanical processes. The fun part? It doesn’t need any other energy sources: it’s powered only by the plastic you’d throw in the recycling bin.
“Not only will it produce energy, but it will do so with near-zero emissions using existing carbon capture technology,” the engineer says.
I'm just wondering if it's easier or harder to assemble than an IKEA piece of furniture. And I don't have any simple answers. But I can try to summarize what I understand about how it works.
Domestic Energy from Plastic? The (Theoretical) Process
The device creates a cloud of pulverized plastic that is heated to a high temperature in a ceramic chamber. The steam generated then drives a turbine to produce electricity. Not just any turbine, but a boundary layer turbine: a particular bladeless turbine invented by Nikola Tesla in 1913.
As for generating capacity… well, that’s where the story gets as hazy as their plastic cloud. The company doesn’t specify how much electricity it can produce per gram of recycled plastic. And it seems little to you.
The project was supposed to go into production late last year, but it looks like there are still a few details that need to be ironed out. The latest update reveals that the engineer is switching from ceramic to anodized aluminum for the combustion chamber. A change that suggests that perhaps not everything was as perfect as it seemed.
Other similar attempts
This is not the first time someone has tried to transform plastic waste into energy. There are projects that propose to power ships with this system, using hydrothermal liquefaction.
Basically, they heat and depolymerize plastic at temperatures up to 500°C and pressures 250-300 times higher than sea level. Sound complicated? It is. Which is why I’m a little skeptical about a shoebox-sized version of home energy.
Is it worth believing?
The idea is fascinating: to solve the plastic waste problem and the domestic energy problem at the same time. Caris has been working on it for more than 10 years and has 40 years of engineering experience behind him. That's a lot.
But when something seems too good to be true… well, you know what they say. For now, maybe it's better not to throw away the solar panels. And maybe continue to recycle plastic in the traditional way (even if I have my doubts in general).
In the meantime, we will continue to follow the developments of this curious invention. Who knows, maybe in a few years we will all find ourselves with a generator Carismatic in the garage. Or maybe it's just another one of those ideas that seemed perfect on paper.
Time (and some more concrete data) will tell. But, wait a minute: combustion produces microplastics? No, huh? Nothing. No response.
