They develop a fuel with plastic bags that could replace the diesel develop a fuel with plastic bags that could replace diesel

Millions of tons of plastic waste occur annually globally, which further aggravates the climatic crisis causing serious environmental problems due to the difficulty of its elimination.

In fact, a wide percentage of plastics ends up in landfills or oceans, while a significant amount is ingested by marine species.All this translates into a destruction of ecosystems.

Therefore, a team of researchers from California State Polytechnic University has tried to look for a solution to this problem and has turned plastic bags into a fuel similar to diesel through catalytic pyrolysis.

How was the process?

"A de-affected catalyst was prepared by dissolving nickel and tungsten powder, which has been published in Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

This synthesized catalyst was used together with a pyrolytic reactor to "break down a mixture of plastic bags for groceries".Thus, it was found that "the catalyst was selective for the typical Diesel C9-C22 isomers," they add in this advance.

Pyrolysis is a procedure based on the thermochemical decomposition of carbon -based matter in the absence of oxygen.As they collect in SciencePlus, the researchers had the objective of recycling the plastic and turning it into other products, a process that was achieved thanks to the catalyst.

"Reduce dependence on fossil fuels"

The result was a material similar to fuel.Therefore, this pyrolytic process transforms primary organic waste into a sustainable fuel or other valuable chemist."The catalyst is essential for this particular pyrolysis process, because it only requires one step to reach the desired fuel product at relatively soft temperatures," argues one of the authors, Mingheng Li.

In this sense, this process used with plastic waste could serve for the recycling and processing of other waste or waste, such as used motor oil or manure."This pyrolysis process serves as a definitive step to reduce the dependence of fossil fuels," concludes the expert.