IBGYAF awardee UK registered design STEM Best Practice Global Summit

Turning
plastic
into power.

PURE is a pyrolysis unit built by students, sized for one housing society. It gets rid of household plastic right where it is thrown away, breaking it down into oil and a gas. And it is self-sustaining*: it burns that gas to heat itself. We started with a $5 prototype, and it worked.

See how it works Read the build log

Prototype cost

20 ml

Pyro-oil from trial 2

Trials, 1 failure

$1,500

IBGYAF grant

Registered design

01 The problem

Plastic piles up.
Then it burns.
We want to stop it at the source.

In 2019 the world threw away 353 million tonnes of plastic. Only 9% was recycled, and 22% was dumped, burned in the open or leaked into the environment¹. India's plastic pollution is the highest of any country, at about 9.3 million tonnes a year².

In our city, Faridabad, waste goes to the Bandhwari landfill. In 2022 the Haryana government was fined Rs 100 crore over how the site was run³. More than 70 fires broke out there between March and June 2024, and one in April 2025 took 16 hours to put out⁴.

Most of the harm happens after plastic leaves a home and before it reaches a proper facility, if it ever does. Pyrolysis, heating plastic without oxygen, breaks it down into oil and a gas that burns. PURE is our attempt to do that inside the housing society, so the plastic never enters that chain.

Our priority is simple: remove plastic waste. The oil is a by-product, not the goal.

We asked people about plastic

Online survey, about 150 to 200 people

Use plastic regularly97%

Recycle their plastic22%

Satisfied with current recycling options11%

Interested in a product like PURE91%

Shared through our own networks, so it is not a random sample. Interest is not the same as willingness to pay or to host a unit. Our next survey will ask residents of specific societies about both.

Watch

PURE in three minutes.

A known loop, shrunk to fit one society.

Large pyrolysis plants already burn the gas that doesn't condense into oil to heat their own reactors⁵. We didn't invent that loop. What nobody has really shown is whether it still works in a unit small enough to sit in a housing society, where a small vessel loses far more of its heat. Our calculations say it does: at a gas yield of about 15%, PURE is self-sustaining*. Our next prototype will measure it. Follow the gas around the bottom of the diagram, and hover or tap any part to explore it.

Swipe to see the whole diagram →

Hot vapour Pyro-oil Non-condensable gas (the loop)

Hover or tap a part

Each component has a job. The dashed yellow line is insulation: our calculations show the loop only works if the heating chamber is wrapped in it. The compressor and gas store turn leftover gas into a fuel supply, and they are the parts our $5 prototype could not yet do.

Collect and shred

Take the society's plastic, keep out only PVC, then shred it so 25 kg fits in the chamber.

Seal and heat

Remove the air, then heat to 400 to 550 °C. LPG starts each run.

Condense

Cool the vapour with flowing cold water until most of it turns to oil.

Separate

Drain the oil. Compress the leftover gas. Remove the char once it cools.

↻

Reuse

Burn the gas under the chamber in place of LPG.

* Self-sustaining at a 15% gas yield

Calculated

One 25 kg batch over four hours, base case, from our energy balance¹⁰ and published energy demand⁹.

Fuel needed, chamber insulated138 MJ

Energy in the gas at a 10% gas yield113 MJ

Energy in the gas at a 15% gas yield169 MJ ✓

More than the 138 MJ needed, with about a fifth to spare.

Fuel needed, no insulation516 MJ

With an insulated chamber, the gas covers all the heat once it makes up a little over 12% of the plastic by mass. At 15% it covers it with energy to spare, so no outside fuel is needed after start-up. Published studies of these plastics report gas yields of 2.5 to 19.4%⁶. Without insulation, the gas would need to be about 46% of the plastic, which is why insulation is part of the design.

What one batch should give

Calculated

25 kg of shredded polyolefin and polystyrene plastic, using yields reported in published studies^6,7,8. Mixes with more PET give less oil.

17 to 27 litres of pyro-oil
60 to 85% of the plastic by mass, the range reported for mixed household plastics.
About 5× the fuel the process needs
The oil holds 630 to 893 MJ, the same energy as 18 to 25 litres of diesel.
Gas
Burned under the chamber. We need at least about 3 kg per batch for the loop to close.
Char
A small solid residue, removed after each batch. How to dispose of it safely is still to be tested.

None of this oil has been tested as a fuel yet. It cannot be sold or used as diesel until it passes the Indian diesel standard, IS 1460.

What goes in

Almost all of it. We want households to stop worrying about sorting and hand over their plastic waste. Only PVC stays out, for safety.

Liquid oil yields, as reported across published studies⁶. A low yield doesn't limit us: our goal is to get rid of the plastic, not to make as much oil as possible.

HDPE #2

Milk and detergent bags, containers, carry bags

75–91% oil

LDPE #4

Carry bags, films, milk packets

80–95% oil

PP #5

Medicine bottles, cereal liners, packaging films

82–92% oil

PS #6

Foam packaging, tea and ice cream cups

90–97% oil

PVC #3

Never. It gives off hydrogen chloride, which corrodes the unit and can form toxic pollutants.

PET #1

Water and soft drink bottles. Welcome too. It gives less oil than the others, and that's fine: the plastic is still gone.

23–39% oil

03 Build log

We failed first. Then it worked.

This is the real record of what we tried, what broke, and what we changed.

Trial 1 · No oil

A pressure cooker

Our first reactor was an everyday pressure cooker in the school lab. It produced no oil, just a strong smell. We later worked out why: its safety valve opened as the plastic broke down and let the vapour out before it could reach the pipe.

It still taught us two things. The plastic did turn into gas, the first sign the loop might work. And a reactor needs a sealed path to the condenser, with any pressure relief sent to a flare, never into the room.

A pressure cooker and tubing set up on a lab bench for the first trial — Trial 1: setting up and running the pressure cooker in the school lab.

A student preparing the pressure cooker reactor in the school lab — Trial 1: setting up and running the pressure cooker in the school lab.

Two students handing over a bag of collected plastic — The plastic collection drive in our school community.

Students with a bag of plastic from the collection drive — The plastic collection drive in our school community.

Between trials

A plastic collection drive

Before the second test we collected plastic from our school community. It gave us material for the run, and it put the problem we were solving in front of real people.

Trial 2 · It worked

The $5 prototype

We rebuilt the reactor from a recycled metal drum and pipes from scrap dealers, for about five dollars, and ran it on a rooftop for safety. An LPG stove heated 1 to 2 kg of plastic from our collection drive for 3 to 4 hours. Oil droplets formed in the tube, the gas bubbled through a water bath and burned when we lit it, and part of it helped with the heating. We collected 20 ml of pyro-oil.

That is only about 1 to 2% of the plastic by mass, against 60 to 85% in published studies. Most of the gap comes from the build, not from pyrolysis: an uninsulated drum heated only from below, air inside, leaks, wax in the long pipe, warm cooling water and a run that was too short. Trial 2 worked as a proof of concept. It did not work as a measurement, because we had no thermometers or scales to record temperature or a mass balance.

The team setting up the trial 2 rig on a rooftop, with the drum, hoses and a water bath — The rooftop set-up for trial 2.

Students loading plastic into the recycled drum reactor — Loading plastic into the drum.

The recycled metal canister reactor sitting on a small stove on a rooftop — The canister reactor, outdoors.

A green hose coil carrying condensing vapour — The condensing coil.

Trial 2: the gas bubbling through water.

Testing the captured gas: it burns.

What went wrong, and what changed

Seven lessons from trial 2

Problem

Loose plastic wasted reactor space.

Next build

Shred plastic into fine pieces so more fits per batch.

Problem

Gas leaked from openings we hadn't checked.

Next build

Leak-check every joint before every run.

Problem

Oil dripped out of the end of the pipe.

Next build

Seal the pipe ends with screw locks.

Problem

In a long pipe, vapour cooled into wax and stuck.

Next build

Shorten the path between reactor and condenser.

Problem

Warm water condensed less vapour.

Next build

Use colder water in the condensation tank.

Problem

The run needs more time than we gave it.

Next build

Plan at least five hours for each run.

The biggest gap

We couldn't yet compress and store the gas, so efficiency was low.

Design v3 added a gas compressor and a storage tank. Our later calculations showed that tank would hold only 7 to 11% of the gas needed to warm up a batch, so gas storage is still an open design question.

The concept

Design v3

A dimensioned 3D model, made in Blender, that brought together the lessons from both trials. We used it to explain the process and to cost a research prototype.

It could not be built as drawn. Its vapour lines were labelled as PVC and PEX, plastics made for water that would soften in hot vapour, and its parts were spread out on long pipes that would have repeated our wax problem. So we turned it into the compact model below.

Part	Size	Budget
Custom metal canister	0.4 m × 0.8 m	$930
Condensation tank	0.3 m × 0.8 m	$20
20 m coil pipe	inside the tank	$25
Collection tank	0.2 m × 0.4 m	$50
Gas compressor	—	$100
NCG tank and dispenser	0.25 m × 0.3 m	$300
Pipes (4) and exterior cover	—	$185.50
One research prototype		≈ $1,610

Dimensioned 3D model of PURE showing the canister, condensation tank, NCG tank, compressor and collection tank — Design v3, the dimensioned concept model. Pipe materials shown are from the concept and would not survive real operating temperatures.

04 The registered design

Compact. Mobile. Registered in the UK.

The production model is UK registered design No. 6538774, registered on 10 July 2026 and granted on 23 July 2026, with the three of us as its proprietors. Three vessels sit close together on one wheeled base, with the burner built into the base under the heating chamber.

The full front view, labelled. Tap to open full size.

Four of the twelve views filed with the UK registration.

How the parts work together

1Heating chamber. Filled with plastic. About 0.40 m across and 0.95 m tall (119 litres), with a bolted lid and a dial gauge on the outlet.
2Gas pipe. Carries the hot vapour. It slopes down, so liquid drains forward, not back into the chamber.
3Condensation tank. Filled with water to cool the vapour. About 0.35 m by 0.35 m.
4Oil collection tank. About 0.35 m across and 0.45 m tall (43 litres). It sits lower, so oil drains in without a pump.
5Gas return line. The leftover gas is compressed and sent back to the heating unit.
6Heating unit. A burner in the base, directly under the chamber.
7Castor wheels. The whole unit, about 1.50 m wide and 1.75 m tall, can be moved.

The certificate

Certificate of Registration for a UK Design

Design number: 6538774
Issued by: UK Intellectual Property Office
Registered: 10 July 2026
Granted: 23 July 2026
Proprietors: Aarrush Chaturvedi, Soham Mishra, Samrat Aneja
Classification: Class 15 (machines, not elsewhere specified), subclass 99

What changed from Design v3

The burner is now part of the base, directly under the chamber.
Short hoses between closely spaced vessels, instead of long plastic pipes.
Gravity moves the liquids, with no pump.
The whole unit moves on wheels.

What the registration does and doesn't mean

A UK registered design protects how the unit looks: its shape, lines and layout. It records our design and its date. It does not prove the unit works. The registered views also don't show where the compressor sits, or whether the tank cools the vapour through a coil or by bubbling it through water. We treat both as open decisions.

Sizes are nominal, scaled from the side view assuming a 0.40 m chamber.

05 Honest numbers

What we've measured, what we've calculated, and what we don't know yet.

We keep these lists apart on purpose. Measurements come from our own trials. Calculations come from first-principles energy balances written in Python, using published data and the sizes of our registered design¹⁰.

Measured by us

20 ml of pyro-oil from 1 to 2 kg of plastic in the $5 prototype.
About $5 to build it from a recycled drum and scrap pipes.
The gas it made burned when lit.
2 trials, one failure, seven lessons.

Calculated

The chamber holds 25 kg only if the plastic is shredded or compacted first.
A bare chamber wall loses 10 to 18 kW of heat. 50 mm of mineral wool cuts that to 0.83 kW.
With insulation, PURE is self-sustaining from a gas yield of about 12%, with energy to spare at 15%.
The condenser needs 140 to 200 litres of cooling water per batch, far more than its tank holds.
Compressing the gas uses under 1% of its energy.
At two batches a day, one unit could handle the suitable plastic of roughly 330 to 2,200 households.

Not known yet

Our real oil, gas and char yields, and the temperature inside the chamber.
Our real gas yield. The loop needs about 15% to run itself, and our next prototype will measure it.
Fuel quality. Our 20 ml sample is waiting for independent lab testing.
Emissions from the burner, and what to do with the char.
What the registered model costs to build. Our early cost estimates were too low.

What the maths told us to change

The registered design needs three additions before it can work as intended.

1. Insulation

Without it, even the best gas yields cover less than half the heat. It also needs an outer casing, because the insulated surface still reaches about 77 °C.

2. Flowing cooling water

A still tank warms up and condenses less, exactly what we saw in trial 2. About 0.6 to 0.8 litres a minute, or an extra air-cooled stage.

3. Heat for the warm-up

Most of the heat is needed before the gas starts flowing. Either store much more gas, run two chambers in turn, or start each batch with some LPG.

06 Recognition

People who've backed it.

IB Global Youth Action Fund

$1,500

2026 grant. It funds our next phase: the instrumented research prototype.

UK registered design

No. 6538774

Registered 10 July 2026, granted 23 July 2026.

STEM Best Practice Global Summit

Qualified for this global STEM event.

Three RWAs in Faridabad

3,000+

households represented by the associations that wrote to us.

Letters of appreciation

We contacted six or seven Resident Welfare Associations. Three wrote back. Each letter says PURE "demonstrates a practical approach towards addressing the growing challenge of plastic waste".

These are letters of support, not orders or commitments to host a unit. They tell us the people who run waste and backup power for thousands of homes are willing to listen.

SRS Pearl Floors RWA
Shishir Jha, General SecretarySector 87 · 6 April 2026

RWA Pocket A
Tejpal Singh, PresidentSector 28 · 6 April 2026

Omaxe Heights Resident Welfare Association
Issued on the association's letterheadSector 86 · 24 June 2026

SRS Pearl Floors RWA · Shishir Jha, General Secretary

RWA Pocket A · Tejpal Singh, President

Omaxe Heights RWA

Letter of appreciation · 24 June 2026

Omaxe Heights RWA · on the association's letterhead

What's next

Prove it first. Then deploy it.

Our plan for the next 17 to 18 months runs in five phases. Nothing goes into a housing society until the unit has been measured, tested and approved.

Phase 1 · 5 months · Now

Research prototype

Build an instrumented unit from the registered design, run the tests below and publish the results. Funded by our IBGYAF grant.

Phase 2

Endurance tests

Longer runs under constant load, in a controlled industrial setting.

Phase 3

Refine

Improve the design and controls so society staff can run it safely.

Phase 4

Compliance

Environmental permits and fire-safety approval, before any residential use.

Phase 5

First units

Install the first units in housing societies, starting with the associations that wrote to us.

Phase 1: what we're adding

An insulation jacket
Three thermocouples
A pressure relief valve that vents to a flare
A short vapour line
Continuous cooling-water flow

Phase 1: what we'll measure

Temperatures through the charge

A full mass balance: feed, oil, char, gas

Gas flow, composition and LPG used

Cooling-water flow and temperature

Oil quality at an independent lab, against IS 1460

Flue gas emissions and char composition

Leak tests and a hazard review

The real cost of every batch

We have set aside $1,500 for independent laboratory testing of the oil.

07 Safety and responsibility

Heat and gas deserve respect.

Pyrolysis involves high temperatures, a flammable gas and an oil that catches fire more easily than diesel. A unit in a housing society sits close to homes, so safety, emissions and simple operation matter even more than in a factory. We are not claiming PURE is ready for homes today.

The rules we have to meet

The oil's flash point puts it in Petroleum Class B, which governs how it can be stored.
Diesel generators are restricted in the NCR under the Graded Response Action Plan, so using the oil in a society's generator would have to meet both fuel and air-quality rules.
Under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026, large societies must send dry waste, including plastic, to material recovery facilities. Treating it on site would need the local body's agreement.
Small tyre pyrolysis plants must now use automated batch processes. We expect a residential unit to face similar questions.

Tested outdoors. After trial 1, our working trial ran on an open rooftop, not inside a room.
Vent to a flare, never the room. Our next prototype adds a pressure relief valve that sends gas to a flare.
Leak checks every run. A gas leak in trial 2 taught us to seal and test every joint first.
No PVC, ever. It gives off hydrogen chloride when heated, so it stays out of the reactor.
Independent testing. Our oil sample is waiting for lab analysis, so we're not claiming a fuel grade yet. Only oil that passes will be tried in a burner or engine, under expert supervision.
Approvals first. Permits, fire-safety sign-off and early talks with regulators come before any residential use.

08 The team

Three students, one machine.

We are students at Shiv Nadar School, Faridabad. Together we built and tested the prototypes, developed the designs, ran the survey and outreach, did the calculations and wrote up our research.

Aarrush Chaturvedi

Co-founder

Soham Mishra

Co-founder

Samrat Aneja

Co-founder

Project mentor

Rohit Tiwari

Sources

OECD (2022). Global Plastics Outlook: Economic Drivers, Environmental Impacts and Policy Options. OECD Publishing, Paris. doi:10.1787/de747aef-en
Cottom, J. W., Cook, E. & Velis, C. A. (2024). A local-to-global emissions inventory of macroplastic pollution. Nature, 633, 101–108. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07758-6
Solanki, M. (2022, 21 October). Haryana fined Rs 100 crore: Bandhwari landfill threat to human health, environment despite repeated orders. Down To Earth.
Press Trust of India (2025, 30 April). Gurugram gasps for air: Bandhwari landfill fire doused but toxic fumes fill sky. The Week.
Fivga, A. & Dimitriou, I. (2018). Pyrolysis of plastic waste for production of heavy fuel substitute: a techno-economic assessment. Energy, 149, 865–874. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2018.02.094
Kabeyi, M. J. B. & Olanrewaju, O. A. (2023). Review and design overview of plastic waste-to-pyrolysis oil conversion with implications on the energy transition. Journal of Energy, 2023, 1821129. doi:10.1155/2023/1821129
Anuligwe, C. F. et al. (2026). Pyrolysis of mixed plastic waste (LDPE, HDPE, PP, and PS): a critical review of fuel oil yield, quality, and process performance. IJISRT, 11. doi:10.38124/ijisrt/26jan662
Hasan, M. M. et al. (2025). Pyrolysis of plastic waste for sustainable energy recovery: technological advancements and environmental impacts. Energy Conversion and Management, 326, 119511. doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2025.119511
Netsch, N. et al. (2024). Energy demand for pyrolysis of mixed thermoplastics and waste plastics in chemical recycling: model prediction and pilot-scale validation. ACS Sustainable Resource Management, 1, 1485–1492. doi:10.1021/acssusresmgt.4c00109
Aneja, S., Chaturvedi, A. & Mishra, S. (2026). PURE (Pyrolysis Unit for Recycling and Energy): a concept for residential-scale pyrolysis that converts household plastic waste into fuel at the source. Concept paper, in preparation.

Turningplasticinto power.

Plastic piles up.Then it burns.We want to stop it at the source.

PURE in three minutes.

A known loop, shrunk to fit one society.

We failed first. Then it worked.

A pressure cooker

A plastic collection drive

The $5 prototype

Seven lessons from trial 2

Design v3

Compact. Mobile. Registered in the UK.

Certificate of Registration for a UK Design

What we've measured, what we've calculated, and what we don't know yet.

People who've backed it.

Prove it first. Then deploy it.

Heat and gas deserve respect.

Three students, one machine.

Turning
plastic
into power.

Plastic piles up.
Then it burns.
We want to stop it at the source.