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.
They probably ARE Chinese COMMUNISTS!.........................
Asphalt is probably much cheaper.....................
We never see names like Quandavarius, Lakeisha and Shanaenae in these reports.
I wonder why?................................
Most likely paid for the device.....................
“How much energy (cost of) is needed to drive this process?”
At 428°F, not much.....................
At these temperatures, you could do it inside your garage......................
Just rearranging the atoms........................
Same here. It was something called Thermal Depolymerization. But nothing happened.
But then you won’t have made the jet fuel. I think the main thing they are excited about is making a liquid fuel.
Ah, the enviros will hate that then!.....................
It’s a total mystery, I tell you!
The “turkey guts to oil” facility got shut down due to multiple complaints about the smell. There are strong indications that the odors were coming from someplace other than that facility, but they were fined for it anyway to the point where they couldn’t keep it running.
The guy who developed the process may have been a decent inventor, but he was a terrible businessman. I actually started following his progress back in the 90’s. The system he created could be scaled down small enough you could haul the whole machine on a single semi truck. But, he focused entirely on large-scale facilities the size of a city block. I really think if he’d put more effort into the smaller machines he would have done great. But he didn’t, and he went bankrupt some time after the turkey guts facility got shut down. The patents were bought out by a company in Canada that claims to be working to clean up the environment, but which has a history of sitting on patents that would actually accomplish that.
A lot of those patents expired over the last few years. I keep hoping someone will pick the project up and run with it.
Interesting info about the turkey to oil thing. I actually had a reminder on my calendar program to take a look at the site once a year, because it sounded interesting, and surely could have been made more general than just turkeys.
I agree that it might have been better to focus on smaller scale processing. If you had a complete process that could fit on a semi, you could easily go to where the resources were. Also, something that small could easily be installed on-site at rendering plants. Why do everything centrally when you don’t have to?
Even better. Because the process worked on pretty much anything that contained hydrocarbons, it could be used on an incredible range of waste streams. Plastics, old tires, food-processing byproducts, raw sewage, etc. For one of my classes back in college I wrote up a paper on why it should be used as part of municipal wastewater treatment systems.
If handled right, this thing could have changed sanitation as we know it, while helping make the US a little more energy-independent. But the business decisions the company made were bad enough, I later used it in a business-management class as an example of how having a great product does NOT equal having a great business.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.