Plastic to Fuel : New research claims conversion of plastic trash to liquid fuel
For the past few years plastic and plastic trash have just like been a nuisance for a clean and green environment. But the claim of a recent research study have brought about new rays of hope towards a green future with no plastic pollution.
Is this the beginning of the end for plastic trash? It might be, according to the team of researchers who claimed that a method for converting plastics to usable fuel has been developed in the laboratory.
The research was done by a combined team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of California.
According to the latest available figures, the world produced 299 million tons of plastic in 2013. According to the United Nations Environmental Program, between 22 percent and 43 percent of the plastic used worldwide is disposed of in landfills. This trash is non-biodegradable and will continue to survive for centuries. Another study conservatively put the total plastic trash dumped in oceans at nearly 300,000 tons causing immense loss and damage to marine life. Till date no chemical or biological process has been developed to degrade the plastics accumulating across
the world’s ecosystems. So, a solution of the kind reported in this research paper could potentially be a game changer.The method reported by the team involves mixing the plastics with an organometallic catalyst, which was made by mixing readily available molecules that were then doped with metal iridium, phys.org reported. The reaction caused the bonds holding the plastic together to weaken, allowing them to be more easily torn apart, after doing so, the team was able to use the broken down material to create a diesel-like fuel which they claim could be used to power vehicles and other motors — they reported that burning the fuel is also cleaner than burning other combustible materials.
Most people know that modern life is filled with plastics, from packaging, to bags and soda bottles — the world has been inundated with them since they became a cheaper alternative to many other products. The problem is, of course, that they break down very slowly, which means they are piling up in landfills and serving as the source material in artificial island creation in our seas.
Scientists have been looking for good ways to degrade plastics, particularly polyethylene, the most common kind produced, but until now, have not been able to find a means for doing so that is both inexpensive and scalable. In this new effort, the researchers report on successes they have achieved in the former and their hopes for the latter.
