Scientists who are committed to plastic recycling are constantly discovering new ways to use waste plastics, from converting them into useful aerogels or usable fuels. They made five incredible things out of plastic garbage.
The R&D team of Washington State University led by Associate Professor Lei Hanwu has made an exciting breakthrough. They found a way to break down the low-density polyethylene in waste plastic bags and water bottles into grain-sized particles and convert them into jet fuel. The process involves placing particles on top of an activated carbon bed in a so-called tubular reactor. Both carbon and plastics are heated to the highest temperature of 57 1_C, which leads to their thermal decomposition and releases the hydrogen content stored in plastics. As a result, a series of hydrocarbons have been produced, all of which can be used to make aircraft fuel in theory.
In 20 17, a research team built a semi-portable pyrolysis reactor to convert plastics into a series of vehicle fuels. It can be installed in the moving system at the back of a truck or a ship, and handle this plastic conversion during the moving process. The researchers used a new type of catalyst to complete this miniaturized pyrolysis. They said that this catalyst can quickly decompose plastic waste into diesel oil and can be used without additional refining. Although this system is small, it swallows 10000 pounds of waste plastic every day.
Making chemicals is a resource-intensive process, in which a lot of energy tries to remove unwanted molecules from liquids. Earlier this year, scientists from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia began to use PET plastic, dissolved it first, and then reconstructed it into a flat film with a special solvent. The team tested different versions of this new recycled plastic film and fine-tuned its design by adding additional polymers. The most suitable filter for removing molecules from liquid has a pore size of 35 to 100 nm, which can not only treat harsh chemicals, but also concentrate on the application in water filtration field.
Scientists at the National University of Singapore have opened an aerogel made of discarded plastic bottles, which can be used as a mask to filter dust particles. To this end, scientists made PET plastics into fibers and then coated them with silicon dioxide. Then these fibers are chemically treated to make them swell, and then dried into light, porous and soft aerogels. This kind of aerogel can be used for various purposes, including sound insulation or dust filtration in buildings.
The research team found that if a compound is coated on aerogel, the efficiency of aerogel to absorb oil spill will be seven times that of commercial materials. The team obtained the patent of this technology, and after the research results were published, they began to look for industrial partners to commercialize this technology.
As a material, carbon nanotubes have a wide application prospect in the fields of medicine, ocean engineering, bomb disposal and so on. As early as 20 13, scientists from the University of Adelaide, Australia, tried to make carbon nanotubes by depositing carbon layers in the pores of alumina films. When the researchers used ethanol as the carbon source for the experiment, a team member found that any carbon source could be used, including carbon in plastic bags. In fact, this form of carbon is more effective than ethanol to construct carbon nanotubes, and scientists do not need toxic catalysts or solvents to help construct carbon nanotubes.
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