Name: Plastics Can Be Broken Down Into Fuel, And We Just Found a Great Method For It
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Plastics Can Be Broken Down Into Fuel, And We Just Found a Great Method For It

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If you didn't know already, we have bad news –  severely under-performing. waste ever produced has been recycled. Around 12 percent has been burnt, leaving 79 percent of all plastic ever produced still out there in the world. While we work out how to be less reliant on these materials, researchers have also been investigating how to reuse one of the most common types of plastic –  – by turning it into fuel."Single-use plastics impose an enormous environmental threat, but their recycling, especially of polyolefins, has been proven challenging," researchers from the University of Delaware (UD) ."We report a direct method to selectively convert polyolefins to branched, liquid fuels including diesel, jet, and gasoline-range hydrocarbons."This is definitely scientists plastic into fuel (in fact, we've been reporting on these methods ), but like most material sciences, the goal is to get the most plastic converted into the most fuel, at the cheapest cost and using the least amount of resources to do so.The new technique ticks plenty of those boxes: it uses 50 percent less energy than similar technologies, can be done at temperatures of a normal kitchen oven, and doesn't involve adding carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. All exciting steps in the right direction. "Plastic waste is a serious environmental issue. I believe that this research can help lead to better methods of plastic repurposing," , a UD chemical engineer.The team uses a chemical process called to break down the carbon bonds in the plastic, using a catalyst made up of minerals called  and mixed metal oxides.Mixed metal oxides are used to break down large molecules, while zeolites foster the formation of branched molecules – a technique which makes the plastic goop more easily translated into an end product."Alone these two catalysts do poorly. Together, the combination does magic, melting the plastics down and leaving no plastic behind," "These are not exotic materials, so we can quickly start thinking about how to use the technology."As an added bonus, the team's process doesn't need to separate different types of plastics, which is helpful when many of the plastic products now sold are multicomponent - either as composites, blends, or having multiple layers of different types. This is far from the end of plastic waste, of course, and only deal with one symptom of the larger issue.  a circular economy, we have to eventually stop pulling oil from the ground to make plastic, which is something that the researchers are well aware of."As this circular economy gets going, the world will need to make fewer original plastics because we will be reusing materials made today into the future," "We want to use green electricity to drive the chemical processing involved in making new things … that's where we are headed over the next 10 to 20 years."Sounds like it is time to get started.The research has been published in . 

If you didn't know already, we have bad news –  severely under-performing. waste ever produced has been recycled. Around 12 percent has been burnt, leaving 79 percent of all plastic ever produced still out there in the world. While we work out how to be less reliant on these materials, researchers have also been investigating how to reuse one of the most common types of plastic –  – by turning it into fuel."Single-use plastics impose an enormous environmental threat, but their recycling, especially of polyolefins, has been proven challenging," researchers from the University of Delaware...

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Jacinta Bowler is a Journalist and Community Manager at ScienceAlert. They've reported for ScienceAlert since 2015, covering everything from the psychology of conspiracy theories to terrifying superbugs. They also founded the ScienceAlert fact-checking team in 2016, and they oversee the social media channels.

https://www.sciencealert.com/jacinta-bowler

Jacinta Bowler

Sharing the most fascinating and inspiring science news. We analyse and fact check to bring you the best in real, genuine scientific research you can trust.

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Plastics Can Be Broken Down Into Fuel, And We Just Found a Great Method For It

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