The most global and one of the worst problems facing the Earth now is the abundance of plastic waste. According to the calculations of ecologists, landfills and oceans is currently about 5 billion tons of plastic, releasing toxic chemicals and polluting the habitat of animals and people. Scientists are searching for ways to resolve this: someone creates environmental materials, and someone comes up with technology for turning waste into fuel. His new design recently shared a group of chemists from Purdue University.
She developed a process that is able to convert plastic waste into a substance similar to gasoline and diesel fuel. Raw material used for its creation is the polypropylene contained in plastic toys, medical devices and food packaging. The idea of the researchers is to burn the polymers of propylene and dissolve them in water that is between liquid and gaseous state.
It is noteworthy that the process must be carried out at a temperature of 380-500 ° C and a pressure of 2300 times higher than above sea level. The transformation occurs over one hour, after this time the researchers are getting fuel is so pure that it can be used in cars and other vehicles.
According to lead researcher Linda van, polypropylene is about a quarter of the 5 billion tons of plastic waste in the world. Their technology is able to transform 90% of polypropylene into a useful fuel. Exactly when the technology will be implemented on a broad scale is unknown, but the developers hope for a big interest from the waste processing industry.
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