America’s landfills are filled with polyethylene plastics discarded by consumers, but could that trash be treasure? According to Science Daily, scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been working on a way to turn waste plastics into gasoline using “inexpensive aluminum-based molten salts to break long plastic molecules into smaller hydrocarbons, producing about 60% gasoline under relatively mild conditions.”
Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new way to transform polyethylene, one of the world’s most common plastics, into gasoline- and diesel-like fuels.
Polyethylene is widely used in products such as shopping bags and white plastic cutting boards, and large amounts of it ultimately end up as waste. The ORNL team’s method combines the plastic with molten salts containing aluminum chloride. These salts perform two jobs at once, acting as both the reaction medium and the catalyst that drives the chemical conversion.
The researchers have applied for a patent for the technology, and the findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The growing American economy needs all the energy it can get. With diesel prices soaring and artificial intelligence data centers eager for more power, the ability to turn trash into treasure could help meet demand at a crucial time.
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