FAQ
Questions the record can already answer.
Illustration, not a PyroLife site.
These answers are project limits and public findings. They are not a permit and not a fuel approval.
What is PyroLife?
An initiative to take plastic out of dirty rivers and, later, out of existing storages, using licensed container-sized pyrolysis machines. People who bring enough accepted plastic would be paid in diesel. PyroLife would pay for the machine. Gathering is local work.
Where?
Malaysia and Indonesia first. India is a candidate. Large plastic storages in Scandinavia are a separate job: measure them, then see whether a machine pays. No river mass is published here until the source sits beside the figure.
Is a machine running?
No. No machine is sited. The container photograph on this site is an illustration.
How much diesel per kilo?
No rate is published. The project does not have a measured yield. A share kept to run the machine is not evidence that anything is left for the people who brought the plastic.
Is the liquid road diesel?
Not automatically. In Europe, automotive diesel is specified by EN 590 and by the Fuel Quality Directive. ASTM D975 names grades of diesel fuel. Pyrolysis oil is not one of those grades. A batch is road fuel only if an authority accepts it and a laboratory shows it meets the rule in force.
What gets refused?
Dirty loads and chlorinated plastics such as PVC can be refused. A refused load earns no diesel. River plastic carries mud, salt, mixed litter, and unknown additives. Whether a future unit can accept it safely is not verified.
What happens to the waste?
Char, off-spec oil, filters, washings, and rejected plastic are wastes. They are hauled to a lawful receiver. They are not left with the person who delivered the plastic. Under EU waste law, making a fuel does not by itself end waste status.
Is this recycling?
Under the EU Waste Framework Directive, recycling excludes energy recovery and reprocessing into materials that will be used as fuels. A diesel reward is not, on that definition, recycled plastic. A 2025 Commission answer to Parliament restated the same limit for chemical-recycling accounts.
Does the machine destroy PFAS?
No. The fuel step is not a fluorine balance. PFAS can move into oil, gas, or fume while the carbon–fluorine bond is still intact. Mineralisation is a later research aim, not a current claim. CleanPFAS is a separate map of sampling places.
Is the char biochar?
No. Certified biochar, under the European Biochar Certificate and the International Biochar Initiative, comes from listed biomass and is tested. A solid from plastic pyrolysis is a waste residue unless a standard and an authority say otherwise.
Is this The Ocean Cleanup?
No, and it is not affiliated. Their public pages say the work began in 2013 and describe interceptors, public collection fees, and outside funders. PyroLife’s difference is the diesel incentive for people who bring plastic. Their tonne figures are theirs. This site does not adopt them.
Who is behind it?
Two Swedish tracks are open: a civic association under the LineSpotting Incubator name, and LineSpotting AB for company research and machines. The site does not pick which of the two associations is the civic track. An application for funding is not an award.
Is the phone app available?
A first phone app has been sent for review. It is not a public download yet. It shows a map, a delivery guide, and a manual. A machine appears only after one has been added.
Why does the library feel older than the project?
Because the law and the reviews are older. This site opened in 2026. The library cites the 2008 waste directive, reviews from 2021 and 2022, UNEP’s 2023 chemicals report, and agency guidance from 2025 and 2026. That span is the public record, not a claim that PyroLife has operated for ten years.