Page 56 - Plastics News July 2023

TECHNOLOGY

‘Bypass fossil fuels’: Researchers create clean fuel from thin air and plastic
waste using solar
established. But it is very difficult to
separate CO2 from the various mol-
ecules present in the air we breathe.
The researchers came up with a novel
solution. By bubbling air through an
alkaline solution, they trapped the
CO2 while other gases like nitrogen
and oxygen bubble out.
Once they concentrated the CO2,
they used chemical reactions to con-
vert it into syngas.
“Instead of storing CO2 underground,
like in CCS, we can capture it from
the air and make clean fuel from it,”
says Dr Motiar Rahaman from the uni-
ew solar-powered technology “In the medium term, this technology versity’s Department of Chemistry.
Ncan transform CO2 and plastic could help reduce carbon emissions
waste into sustainable fuels and cos- by capturing them from industry and “This way, we can cut out the fossil
metics. turning them into something useful, fuel industry from the process of fuel
production, which can hopefully help
Researchers have discovered a way but ultimately, we need to cut fossil us avoid climate destruction.”
to turn plastic waste and carbon diox- fuels out of the equation entirely and
ide captured from the air into a clean capture CO2 from the air.” A pioneering system for addressing
fuel using solar power. University of How does the generator work? plastic waste, the generator also suc-
Cambridge scientists have developed Existing carbon capture and storage cessfully converted plastic waste into
a solar-powered reactor that can turn (CCS) systems pull CO2 from the air glycolic acid, a compound that is used
planet-heating CO2 gas into syngas, a and store it underground. in the cosmetics industry.
key building block for sustainable liq- But this system makes use of the cap- “This solar-powered system takes
uid fuels. The breakthrough is a major tured gas. two harmful waste products - plastic
milestone in energy research - unlike and carbon emissions - and converts
preceding experiments which relied “CCS is a technology that’s popular them into something truly useful,”
on pure CO2, the reactor can use with the fossil fuel industry as a way says co-first author Dr Sayan Kar.
waste gas from industrial plants. to reduce carbon emissions while Approximately 300 million tonnes of
It could eventually be scaled up to continuing oil and gas exploration,” plastic waste - an amount equivalent
explains Reisner.
industrial use. Unlike existing carbon to the weight of the human popula-
capture techniques, this technology “But if instead of carbon capture and tion - are produced every year, ac-
could help us bypass fossil fuels alto- storage, we had carbon capture and cording to the UN Environment
gether by providing an alternate en- utilisation, we could make something Programme. However, only 9 per
ergy source, says lead researcher Pro- useful from CO2 instead of burying cent is recycled, leaving the rest to
fessor Erwin Reisner from the Yusuf it underground, with unknown long- accumulate in landfills or pollute our
Hamied Department of Chemistry. term consequences, and eliminate the oceans with microplastics. Chemical
use of fossil fuels.”
“We’re not just interested in decar- recycling, where plastic is converted
bonisation, but de-fossilisation - we The research team was inspired by into fuels, requires extremely high
need to completely eliminate fossil photosynthesis - the process by which temperatures. The high cost and in-
fuels in order to create a truly circular plants convert sunlight into food. efficiency of this process act as disin-
economy,” says Reisner. Carbon capture techniques are well centives, but this new solar powered

56 PLASTICS NEWS July 2023