TASS, February 16. Russian scientists made a polymer material for fuel transportation in the Arctic. Containers may be recycled safely, press service of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science said on Tuesday.

"The Omsk State Technical University, a member of the Priority 2030 federal program, has made a sample of a polymer, which will be used to make containers to transport fuel in Arctic regions," the press service said. "The technology to make containers from composite polymer materials is the university’s one of strategic directions."

Presently, most fuel containers in the Arctic are 200-liter steel barrels. Metal containers have been supplied to the Far North for decades - since first geology exploration expeditions, the ministry said. However, for many years the empty barrels have remained in the Arctic.

The university’s experts say the new polymer fuel containers do not require storage after use and empty barrels could be processed as soon as they are emptied.

"The utilization of empty polymer barrels could be organized in several ways. The first option is that along with the fuel, the suppliers will send over one item of equipment - a grinder. The barrels will be grinded, the crushes would be stored inside one of the barrels and sent to the mainland for further recycling. One barrel may be filled with 30-90 crushed barrels. In this case, return transportation is economically reasonable," the press service quoted the university’s Director of the Resource Center Grigory Russkikh as saying.

Another option is to burn the used barrels. The material will contain catalyzers to decompose toxic elements. In case of this option, the containers may be used as an energy resource. The gas, emitting during the burning, will be burned additionally in heating boilers. The remaining 5% of the mass would be activated carbon, which could be used as a filtering material.