Fossil raw material breakthrough claim from research team
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden claim to have demonstrated how the carbon atoms in mixed waste can “replace all fossil raw materials in the production of new plastic”.
A team of researchers at Gothenburg-based Chalmers has developed a recycling method inspired by the natural carbon cycle and has said in a study published in The Journal of Cleaner Production that this could eliminate the climate impact of plastic materials, or even clean the air of carbon dioxide.
“There are enough carbon atoms in waste to meet the needs of all global plastic production,” the university’s professor of energy technology, Henrik Thunman, one of the authors of the study, has said. “Using these atoms, we can decouple new plastic products from the supply of virgin fossil raw materials.”
He added that if the process is powered by renewable energy, it would also be possible to obtain plastic products with a climate impact that would be 95% lower than we see with plastics produced today. Current plastic recycling methods are able to replace no more than 20% of the fossil raw material needed to meet society’s demand for plastic, the Chalmers study has said.
The advanced methods proposed by the researchers are based on thermochemical technologies and involve waste being heated to between 600 and 800 degrees Celsius. The waste then turns into a gas, which, after the addition of hydrogen, can replace the building blocks of plastics.
“The key to more extensive recycling is to look at residual waste in a whole new way: as a raw material full of useful carbon atoms. The waste then acquires value, and you can create economic structures to collect and use the material as a raw material worldwide,” Professor Thunman said.
