A team of chemists from Virginia Tech University in the United States has discovered how to transform certain plastics into soaps, detergents, lubricants and other products, which could help solve the problem of plastic pollution.
After five years of research, the work of the team led by Greg Liu, professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, has been published in the scientific journal Nature Sustainability, the private Spanish news agency reported this Monday. Europa Press. .
In simple terms, Liu’s system consists of two steps, the first of which is the use of thermolysis or decomposition of a substance by heat.
The plastic was placed in a reactor built by Liu’s team and heated to between 340 and 400 degrees Celsius, breaking down into chemical compounds, in a mixture of oil, gas and minimal residual solids.
The gas could be used as fuel and in relation to the “product of greatest interest”, oil, the team managed to change its chemistry, obtaining molecules that would become soaps, detergents, lubricants and other products.
According to scientists, the process, which lasted less than a day, generated almost zero air pollution emissions, providing clues to a solution to the global problem of plastic pollution.
Liu believes, however, that the next phase could be the most difficult, that is, expanding the system and making it profitable, so he is looking for help to test a business model.
To do this, you need capital to build a reactor that runs continuously in your lab or in a private company being created off-site that allows you to experience process acceleration.
The scientist promises that he will try to “further reduce the risks of the process,” so that companies “can see the real value of it and can adopt it.”
Source: Observadora
