Posted on 02/12/2025 6:36:02 AM PST by Red Badger
New research turns polyethylene and polypropylene plastics into chemicals like alcohols and surfactants using controlled heating techniques. The findings offer a promising step toward reducing plastic waste and promoting sustainability. Scientists have found methods to convert plastic waste into valuable chemicals.
One approach breaks plastics into olefins for producing alcohols, while another transforms them into fatty acids for detergents. These processes reduce reliance on fossil fuels and support a more sustainable plastic economy.
Turning Plastic Waste into High-Value Chemicals
Researchers have developed new methods to transform common plastic waste — polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) — into valuable chemical products such as alcohols, aldehydes, surfactants, and detergents. These innovations could support a circular plastics economy by making chemical production more sustainable.
Plastic waste is increasingly recognized as a potential source of raw material for high-value chemicals. However, polyolefin plastics like PE and PP, which make up nearly 60% of global plastic production, are particularly challenging to break down into their original building blocks.
One study, led by Houqian Li and colleagues, demonstrates how waste polyolefin plastics can be converted into olefins using thermal depolymerization techniques like pyrolysis. Typically, olefins are produced through energy-intensive processes that rely on fossil fuels such as crude oil and natural gas. Li’s team found that pyrolysis of waste PE produces olefin mixtures that can be further processed into aldehydes and then reduced into valuable oxygenated chemicals, including alcohols and diols.
Another study, led by Zhen Xu and colleagues, presents a method for converting PE and PP plastics into fatty acids, which serve as precursors for commercial surfactants and detergents. By carefully controlling heating temperatures, the researchers prevent uncontrolled pyrolysis reactions that could lead to complete degradation into small molecules. Instead, they produce waxes, which can then be oxidized and saponified to create fatty acids, making them a sustainable source for high-value surfactants.
In a related commentary, Kevin Van Geem discusses the potential impact of these methods on closing the loop in plastic recycling, highlighting their role in advancing a circular plastics economy.
Reference:
“Hydroformylation of pyrolysis oils to aldehydes and alcohols from polyolefin waste”
by Houqian Li, Jiayang Wu, Zhen Jiang, Jiaze Ma, Victor M. Zavala, Clark R. Landis, Manos Mavrikakis and George W. Huber, 10 August 2023, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.adh1853
“Chemical upcycling of polyethylene, polypropylene, and mixtures to high-value surfactants”
by Zhen Xu, Nuwayo Eric Munyaneza, Qikun Zhang, Mengqi Sun, Carlos Posada, Paul Venturo, Nicholas A. Rorrer, Joel Miscall, Bobby G. Sumpter and Guoliang Liu, 10 August 2023, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.adh0993
“Plastic waste recycling is gaining momentum” by Kevin M. Van Geem, 10 August 2023, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.adj2807
Wrapped in plastic...
It’s fantastic!
Help the cause buy plastic straws.
Super fantastic elastic plastic!
Guaranteed to stretch your mind!................
Composite/PVC decking is a fairly large recycler of both plastic and sawdust.
OR your town/city could BURN it.
All of my mixed trash including plastics goes up to the Wheelabrator Technologies facility in Bow, NH where they burn it to boil water/create steam. The turn a turbine to create electricity.
They “discovered” simple, tightly temperature-controlled pyrolysis? Nobody thought of or experimented with that before?
THIS is the way to do ecology...
Isn’t this similar to the Fischer–Tropsch process but using plastic instead of coal?
I knew SOMEONE had a brain. /s
Exactly so.......................
In always thought burning trash was the best way to reduce volume.
Apparently not..............
Controlled heating....
Uh Oh. The greenies aren’t going to like that.
Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures in an inert atmosphere, where complex organic molecules break down into simpler molecules like gases, liquids, or char. Catalysts are not required for basic pyrolysis, but catalysts can be used to enhance the yield or selectivity of certain products.
I think the researchers and the author of the article are not revealing very much about their process couching it in the simplistic and broad "pyrolysis."
It will certainly reduce volume and produce lots of useable heat, but it destroys the higher valuable materials that could be repurposed to higher-value uses. Classification of waste prior to burning can remove the higher value materials before the residue is burned.
When you got it right the first time indeed.
The dirty little secret is all our recycleables go there too. But hey we get to dump them free so it costs us about $6 to dump trash a month.
Wrapped in plastic...
oooo a twin peaks reference.... nice.
I was thinking about that Barbie World song...👍😄
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