Posted on 05/17/2021 1:00:46 PM PDT by Red Badger
Washington State University researchers have developed an innovative way to convert plastics to ingredients for jet fuel and other valuable products, making it easier and more cost effective to reuse plastics.
The researchers in their reaction were able to convert 90% of plastic to jet fuel and other valuable hydrocarbon products within an hour at moderate temperatures and to easily fine-tune the process to create the products that they want. Led by graduate student Chuhua Jia and Hongfei Lin, associate professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, they report on their work in the journal, Chem Catalysis.
“In the recycling industry, the cost of recycling is key,” Lin said. “This work is a milestone for us to advance this new technology to commercialization.”
In recent decades, the accumulation of waste plastics has caused an environmental crisis, polluting oceans and pristine environments around the world. As they degrade, tiny pieces of microplastics have been found to enter the food chain and become a potential, if unknown, threat to human health.
Plastics recycling, however, has been problematic. The most common mechanical recycling methods melt the plastic and re-mold it, but that lowers its economic value and quality for use in other products. Chemical recycling can produce higher quality products, but it has required high reaction temperatures and a long processing time, making it too expensive and cumbersome for industries to adopt. Because of its limitations, only about 9% of plastic in the U.S. is recycled every year.
In their work, the WSU researchers developed a catalytic process to efficiently convert polyethylene to jet fuel and high-value lubricants. Polyethylene, also known as #1 plastic, is the most commonly used plastic, used in a huge variety of products from plastics bags, plastic milk jugs, and shampoo bottles to corrosion-resistant piping, wood-plastic composite lumber and plastic furniture.
For the process, the researchers used a ruthenium on carbon catalyst and a commonly used solvent. They were able to convert about 90% of the plastic to jet fuel components or other hydrocarbon products within an hour at a temperature of 220 degrees Celsius (428 degrees Fahrenheit), which is more efficient and lower than temperatures that would be typically used.
Jia was surprised to see just how well the solvent and catalyst worked.
“Before the experiment, we only speculated but didn’t know if it would work,” he said. “The result was so good.”
Adjusting processing conditions, such as the temperature, time or amount of catalyst used, provided the critically important step of being able to fine-tune the process to create desirable products, Lin said.
“Depending on the market, they can tune to what product they want to generate,” he said. “They have flexibility. The application of this efficient process may provide a promising approach for selectively producing high-value products from waste polyethylene.”
With support from the Washington Research Foundation, the researchers are working to scale up the process for future commercialization. They also believe their process could work effectively with other types of plastics.
Reference: 17 May 2021, Chem Catalysis. DOI: 10.1016/j.checat.2021.04.002
The work, which was done in collaboration with researchers from the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, including Professor Jim Pfaendtner. It was funded by the Washington State Research Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
Does it also turn rust into undercoating?
That would resurrect an Alfasud!
Take those ships that are going after all the garbage in the Pacific and convert them into manufacturing platforms.
Very good point. Very basic. But, does not fit Rube Goldberg ideology.
Carbon to carbon. Sounds far fetched to me.
Decades ago there was a giant pile of used tires in a mountain hollow outside of of Winchester Virginia that was set on fire by a lighting strike. The fire was under the pile and as it burnt it created oil that gathered in the bottom of the hollow and flowed out in such amounts that a dam was built to catch it.
actually it was some dude who told him that, but props for the Mrs. Robinson image ;-)
sorry, never actually saw the film... i only assumed it was mr. robinson..
tthanks
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What is the cost efficiency and/or cost of final product?
It will take a good engineering / feasibility study to answer that question. You'll need a couple of pilot plant designs (proof of concept and scale-up), then preliminary production plant design with good cost estimates of all of those. Then an analysis of the collection of the plastics from consumers and production plants and a cost estimate for that. Then life-cycle estimates for feedstocks, catalysts, maintenance, power, cooling water, waste disposal, etc.
I used to do that in a prior life for new power technologies. It's not a simple nor a cheap effort.
Of course, you can always start with a cocktail napkin at the local watering hole...
I read last year that two plants would be built in the US. I haven't looked into it since.
what happened to putting it in roadways?
How much energy (cost of) is needed to drive this process? If energy positive net game this is good. If not it is just liberal mental chemical masturbation.
I can make any hydrocarbon (plastics, garbage, oil etc.) into anything I want. The real question is it a net gain or loss in energy and is it a cost effective synthesis.
Political correctness will never defeat thermodynamics and entropy which are actually one and the same. Entropy always wins until the universe runs backwards. It does not.
See my post 35.
I had that turkey guts to oil site bookmarked for years. Would go back every six months, but nothing ever seemed to come of it.
Kinda depends upon how much they need. Being a catalyst, it won't be consumed by the process.
I forgot to add this. Each and every chemical reaction results in an increase in entropy unless energy is inputted to the chemical reaction at the expense of enthalpy of another reaction. Thus less Gibbs free energy is available. The importance of such is are we trading a limited amount of enthalpy for unlimited entropy. There is no free lunch in thermodynamics.
Life was much simpler when I lived in the West Texas desert and the swamps of South Louisiana. I should have stayed there. I foolishly became educated. Life was so simple in the desert and swamp. I loved it.
Yep. It’s the same argument for ethanol from corn in our gasoline. You are using more energy to make the ethanol than you get back from the product. But it buys Congressmen votes.
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