US/China team makes one-step process that turns plastics into fuel at room temperature

[thewayne]

There are a couple of problems with recycling plastics. The biggest is that an overwhelmingly vast amount of it doesn't get recycled. It mostly doesn't matter that we separate it out into its own little bin, there are few actual plastic recycling centers. For the most part it still goes to the dump. Sometimes it may get separated into its different classes and baled and sold on for reuse, but that's actually pretty rare.

The other part is that it takes forever - almost literally - for plastics to break down in the environment. And I'm not even going to talk about microplastics in the environment - and in our bodies and in the bodies of pretty much every living creature! Plastic is pretty perfidious stuff. But hey! It made the petroleum industry billions of dollars, so it can't be all bad, can it?

Well. Scientists have developed a process in which PVC can be used to create "chlorine-free fuel range hydrocarbons and [hydrochloric acid] in a single-stage process," the researchers said. Reported conversion efficiencies underscore the potential for real-world use. At 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius), the process reached 95 percent conversion for soft PVC pipes and 99 percent for rigid PVC pipes and PVC wires."

Now, PVC isn't the only plastic out there, but it's a beginning. And if you can reclaim the PVC cladding from wires, you're also now in a position to recycle the now-clean copper in the wire! Twofer!

Very interesting, especially since the process is at a - relatively-speaking - room temperature environment. Increasing the process temperature to 80c/176f, decidedly above room temperature, only increased the efficiency to 96%. Perhaps some discoveries can raise the efficiency or lower the temperature, but that temperature increase I think the energy cost is going to ruin the yield savings.

Obviously there are lots of philosophical, ethical, ecological, etc. issues to consider. If we can increase recycling, we decrease the amount of plastics in the environment, which could decrease the amount of microplastics therein - but are we already at or too far beyond that tipping point? We'd also be decreasing the need for the amount of oil being pumped out of the ground. We don't know the costs of this process, it sounds like it would be pretty expensive, but we also don't know the yield: gross pounds in for barrels out. And would an improvement in the production of petroleum/gasoline decrease demand for EVs, which are decidedly better for the environment?

Lots of things to consider, I'm sure a lot more than I've posited.

https://interestingengineering.com/science/us-china-turn-plastic-to-petrol

https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/27/2258214/worlds-first-1-step-method-turns-plastic-into-fuel-at-95-efficiency

Comments

[bibliofile]

If true, this is very promising.

[armiphlage]

My first guess would be that it would require massive pressures, but the paper indicates it just requires immersing the plastics into a molten salt bath.

[disneydream06]

WOW, that first paragraph is depressing. 😭😭😭
Hugs, Jon

[frith]

Breaking down plastics into fuel or even biodegrading all plastics will just add even more CO2 into the atmosphere.

[kaishin108]

That is wonderful news! Maybe there is hope eh.

[silveradept]

I'm not feeling great about the "turn it into petrol" option, because we know that burning petrol's not great for the environment, either, but I will take removing the long-term damage of plastics as a win, and then hope that we can have a further process or similar such that we turn the gasoline into further harmless components instead of making them into fuel for cars to burn and add more greenhouse gases. It's going to be a great first step. (Especially if we can manage to dent or remove things like the Pacific Garbage Patch for this.)

[kellan_the_tabby]

There's gonna be plenty of us who can't afford an electric car for a while, if ever. If most everyone's running off solar, a few of us burning gas won't make TOO much of a difference.