Page 58 - Plastics News March 2019

TECHNOLOGY

Millions of tons of plastic waste could be turned into clean fuels, other
products

chemical conversion process developed at Purdue Renewable Energy of the School of Engineering Technology,
A University allows researchers to turn recycled shopping to optimize the conversion process to produce high-
bags into pellets into oil. Linda Wang, the Maxine Spencer quality gasoline or diesel fuels. The conversion process
Nichols Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical incorporates selective extraction and hydrothermal
Engineering says Using distillation oil is separated into liquefaction. Once the plastic is converted into naphtha, it
a gasoline-like fuel in the bottle in the counter and a can be used as a feedstock for other chemicals or further
diesel-like fuel.The conversion process incorporates separated into specialty solvents or other products. The
selective extraction and hydrothermal liquefaction. Once clean fuels derived from the polyolefin waste generated
the plastic is converted into naphtha, it can be used as a each year can satisfy 4 percent of the annual demand
feedstock for other chemicals or further separated into for gasoline or diesel fuels. Some results of Wang's study
specialty solvents or other products. "Our strategy is to were published Jan. 29 in ACS Sustainable Chemistry and
Engineering. Wang became inspired to create this
technology after reading about the plastic waste
pollution of the oceans, ground water, and the
environment. Of all the plastics produced over
the past 65 years (8.3 billion tons), about 12
percent have been incinerated and only 9 percent
have been recycled. The remaining 79 percent
have gone into landfills or the oceans. The World
Economic Forum predicts that by 2050 the oceans
will hold more plastic waste than fish if the waste
continues to be dumped into bodies of water. Wang
said the technology could convert up to 90 percent
of the polyolefin plastic. "Plastic waste disposal,
whether recycled or thrown away, does not mean
create a driving force for recycling by converting polyolefin the end of the story," Wang said. "These plastics degrade
waste into a wide range of valuable products, including slowly and release toxic microplastics and chemicals into
polymers, naphtha (a mixture of hydrocarbons), or clean the land and the water. This is a catastrophe, because once
fuels," said Linda Wang, the Maxine Spencer Nichols these pollutants are in the oceans, they are impossible
Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering to retrieve completely." The work aligns with Purdue's
at Purdue University and leader of the research team Giant Leaps celebration, acknowledging the global
developing this technology. "Our conversion technology advancements in sustainability as part of Purdue's 150th
has the potential to boost the profits of the recycling anniversary. This is one of the four themes of the yearlong
industry and shrink the world's plastic waste stock." Wang, celebration's Ideas Festival, designed to showcase Purdue
Kai Jin, a graduate student, and Wan-Ting (Grace) Chen, as an intellectual center solving real-world issues. Wang
a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue, are the inventors of said she hopes her technology will stimulate the recycling
the technology, which can convert more than 90 percent industry to reduce the rapidly rising amount of plastic
of polyolefin waste into many different products, including waste. She and her team are looking for investors or
pure polymers, naphtha, fuels, or monomers. The team partners to assist with demonstrating this technology at a
is collaborating with Gozdem Kilaz, an assistant professor commercial scale. Wang's technology is patented through
in the School of Engineering Technology, and her doctoral the Purdue Research Foundation's Office of Technology
research assistant, Petr Vozka, in the Fuel Laboratory of Commercialization.

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