A team of scientists from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), the United States, and the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), China, has developed a technique which involves breaking down the plastic to a molecular level to turn it into a readily usable fuel similar to diesel. The source material is the most common type of plastic, polyethylene, which is predicted to reach a global annual demand of nearly 100 million metric tons by 2018.
“The process does not involve any harmful chemicals and does not create waste products,” explained Zhibin Guan, at UCI. Devised “in light of the huge plastic pollution as well as the critical energy needs in China,” the process basically melts the old plastic into liquid fuels and waxes. The technique has been published in the journal Science Advances.
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Scientists turn old plastic bottles into fuel
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