NEWS

Purdue research team develops process to convert plastic into fuel

Jillian Ellison*
Lafayette Journal & Courier
A chemical conversion process developed at Purdue University allows researchers to turn recycled shopping bags into pellets into oil as shown in the bottle being held by Linda Wang, the Maxine Spencer Nichols Professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering. Using distillation, that oil is separated into a gasoline-like fuel in the bottle in the counter and a diesel-like fuel not shown.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.— The United Nations estimates that more than 8 million tons of plastics flow into the oceans each year, but a new chemical conversion process could turn that waste into clean fuels.

Comprised of Linda Wang, professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering; Kai Jin, a graduate student and Wan-Ting Chen, a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue, the Purdue University research team members are the inventors of the technology, which can convert more than 90 percent of polyolefin waste into many different products, including pure polymers, naphtha, fuels or monomers, according to a news release.

“Our strategy is to create a driving force for recycling by converting polyolefin waste into a wide range of valuable products, including polymers, naphtha (a mixture of hydrocarbons), or clean fuels,” Wang said. “Our conversion technology has the potential to boost the profits of the recycling industry and shrink the world’s plastic waste stock.”

The team is collaborating with Gozdem Kilaz, an assistant professor in the school of engineering technology, and her doctoral research assistant, Petr Vozka, in the Fuel Laboratory of Renewable Energy of the school of engineering technology, to optimize the conversion process to produce high-quality gasoline or diesel fuels. 

The conversion process incorporates selective extraction and hydrothermal liquefaction, the release said. Once the plastic is converted into naphtha, it can be used as a feedstock for other chemicals or further separated into specialty solvents or other products.

The clean fuels derived from the polyolefin waste generated each year can satisfy four percent of the annual demand for gasoline or diesel fuels. 

Wang became inspired to create this technology after reading about the plastic waste pollution of the oceans, ground water, and the environment, the release said. Of all the roughly 8.3 billion tons of plastics produced over the past 65 years, about 12 percent have been incinerated and only nine percent have been recycled.

The remaining 79 percent have gone into landfills or the oceans, according to the release. 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.

But Wang said the new technology could convert up to 90 percent of the polyolefin plastic.

“Plastic waste disposal, whether recycled or thrown away, does not mean the end of the story,” Wang said. “These plastics degrade slowly and release toxic microplastics and chemicals into the land and the water. This is a catastrophe, because once these pollutants are in the oceans they are impossible to retrieve completely.”

Wang’s technology is patented through the Purdue Research Foundation’s Office of Technology Commercialization, the release said.

Wang said she hopes her technology will stimulate the recycling industry to reduce the rapidly rising amount of plastic waste. She and her team are looking for investors or partners to assist with demonstrating this technology at a commercial scale.

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