Plastic Waste Can Be Used As Fuel

Plastic Waste Can Be Used As Fuel

Chinese Circular Economy Association Chairman pointed out in the meeting that only 9% of the 9,000,000,000 tons of plastic products in the world are recycled and reused. It is big influrance for our ocean. According to statistics, the amount of plastic waste flowing into the ocean every year in 20 years will be nearly three times that of now.

In my country, the annual production volume of plastics is 30 million tons, the consumption volume exceeds 6 million tons, and the amount of plastic waste exceeds one million tons, accounting for 40% of the garbage.

At the same time, more and more technologies have been introduced to "turn waste into treasure" from plastic waste.

Recently, there are reports that American researchers have used a simple low-temperature catalytic method to convert polyethylene polymers contained in many plastics into high-value alkyl aromatic molecules, which have high efficiency, low cost, and low energy consumption. Advantages, the obtained materials can be used as basic raw materials for many industrial chemicals and consumer products, and can be used to manufacture solvents, paints, lubricants, detergents, medicines, etc.

According to related personnel, plastics are composed of carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen bonds, which are difficult to chemically recover. This method does not require the addition of solvents or hydrogen, and only platinum on the alumina catalyst can be used for tandem reactions. This reaction breaks The tough carbon-carbon bonds rearrange the molecular "skeleton" of the polymer.

At the end of 2018, we set off for the Ocean Cleanup project to the "Great Pacific Garbage Belt". The first batch of garbage was towed back to shore at the end of 2019. Not only nine years ago, news came that the Ocean Cleanup Project would sell goods made from recycled plastic waste.

The organization estimates that for every pair of sunglasses sold, a piece of garbage land equivalent to 24 football fields can be cleared.

Another thing to note is that a research group at Nanjing Normal University has proposed a method for polyacid-induced high-efficiency degradation of waste polyester plastics. The obtained POMOFs can efficiently catalyze cyclic carbonate compounds (precursors of polycarbonate plastics). ) To realize the effective reuse of waste plastics. The method is based on the plastic hydrolysis of polyoxometallates. POMs simultaneously undertake the two functions of hydrolysis and providing building blocks, realizing the transformation from one type of waste plastic to another new type of plastic.

A scientific research team successfully developed a new production process in 2019 that can convert ordinary types of plastics into fuels similar to gasoline or diesel. The conversion process uses supercritical water, heats the water to between 716 and 932 degrees Fahrenheit, and then adds the plastic to the mixture. The purified polypropylene will turn into oil in less than 1 hour.

In China, some companies have also developed equipment for high-efficiency conversion of waste plastics into energy, which can process industrial waste plastics, mixed waste plastics from paper mills, medical waste plastics, various agricultural mulches, and other waste plastics with no granulation value. After cracking, catalysis, and harmless treatment, 100% is converted into standard base oil, combustible gas, carbon powder and other renewable energy products.