In addition to the current focus areas, there are many potential areas of use for Cassandra Oil's technology in the future. One of the most interesting markets is electronic waste, and the recovery of oil from oil shale and oil sands.
Electronic waste (E-Waste)
Technology is developing at lightning speed and the result is a dramatic increase in electronic waste. The USA discards about 30 million computers each year. Only about 15 to 20% of these are recycled. The rest are dumped at waste disposal facilities or landfill sites.
E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the European Union, and it is estimated that by 2020 there will be approximately 12 million tonnes of it each year. Just one example is that of mobile phones - in Europe alone, approximately 100 million mobile phones are thrown away each year.
Cassandra Oil's technology makes it possible to extract oil, gas and metals from e-waste. Cassandra Oil estimates that from one tonne of e-waste (depending on the type of waste) it can extract about 700 kg of oil, 200 kg of copper, 400 grams of silver and 40 grams of gold.
However, the oil produced from e-waste contains environmentally-hazardous flame retardants. Further development work is therefore necessary to enable the separation of these bromides before recycling of e-waste can be put into full-scale operation. This is a priority area for Cassandra Oil's R&D teams.
The metals extracted from e-waste must be enriched and processed in the normal way. Cassandra Oil is of the opinion that, in this segment, there are excellent opportunities for working in partnership with the established mining industry.
Oil shale and oil sands
Cassandra Oil's technology also offers tremendous potential for the extraction of oil from oil shale and oil sands. Cassandra Oil's technology does not require the use of any water. This gives it a major competitive edge over other technologies currently being used.
However, Cassandra Oil has decided to focus on tires, plastic and oil lakes as these contain higher concentrations of oil and are therefore considered to be far more profitable, at present, as a raw material than oil shale and oil sands.
