Experts Creates New Technology That Can Convert Plastics To Fuel Sources

A plastics recycling invention that achieves more with less, which was presented today at the American Chemical Society fall meeting in Chicago, boosts conversion to useable products while utilizing less of the rare metal ruthenium.

Less metal is more

(Photo : CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN/AFP via Getty Images)

The very low metal load is the important result we present, according to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientist Janos Szanyi, who led the research team.

This reduces the cost of the catalyst significantly, as per ScienceDaily.

The novel technology transforms plastics more efficiently to valuable commodity chemicals, a process is known as "upcycling," and creates significantly less methane, an undesirable greenhouse gas, as a byproduct when compared to other reported methods.

It was quite interesting to us because nothing had previously been published indicating this conclusion, said Linxiao Chen, a postdoctoral research scientist who presented the research at ACS.

This study demonstrated the possibility of developing effective, selective, and adaptable plastic upcycling catalysts.

Yong Wang, a professor of chemical engineering at Washington State University, Pullman, and a PNNL Laboratory fellow, conducted research on atom trapping and single-atom catalysts.

According to Gutiérrez, there has been a lot of research from a material standpoint to try to understand how single atoms or very small clusters might produce efficient catalysts.

Chen also presented new work at ACS that investigates the impact of support material in boosting system efficiency.

The scientists also looked into less expensive and more widely available support materials to replace cerium oxide, said Chen. "We discovered that a chemically modified titanium oxide may enable a more effective and selective polypropylene upcycling process."

The research team is now investigating how the presence of chlorine influences the efficiency of the chemical conversion in order to make the approach practicable for usage with mixed plastic recycling streams.

Researchers are investigating more stringent extraction conditions, according to chemist Oliver Y. Gutiérrez, an expert in industrial catalysis.

When there isn't a clean plastic source available, chlorine from polyvinylchloride and other sources is used in an industrial upcycling process.

Chlorine has the potential to contaminate the plastic upcycling reaction, and researchers would like to know how chlorine affects our system.

Also Read: Study: One-of-A-kind Catalyst Opens the Path for Plastic Upcycling

The Environmental Advantages of Upcycling

The environmental benefits of upcycling are enormous; aside from reducing the volume of discarded materials and waste sent to landfill each year, it also reduces the need for production using new or raw materials, which means less air pollution, water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and often conservation of global resources, as per Future Learn.

1. Keeping things out of landfills

Many firms and designers are making extremely fascinating things out of old things these days. Many items that were destined for the garbage have been salvaged by some extremely inventive people.

2. Reducing waste in landfills

We've grown so accustomed to things being mass-produced and constructed in a flash that we buy things as soon as we discard them.

3. Natural resources are used as little as possible.

Upcycling existing resources eliminates the need for additional raw materials in the manufacturing process. Did you know that producing the cotton needed to make a single t-shirt requires 2,700 liters?