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AUSSIE-SCIENTIST-RECYCLE-PLASTIC
Aussie scientists find a profitable way to recycle plastic waste
SYDNEY, Nov 21, 2019 (BSS/Xinhua) – Although plastic is a strong, cheap
and hygienic material, its durability presents major problems when it comes
to the environment.
Unable to decompose when buried and casting off toxic smoke when burned,
the global community has been struggling to find an effective way to recycle
and reuse plastic waste.
Often a labor-intensive and time-consuming process, sorting through
different types of plastic materials at recycling facilities can be extremely
difficult.
But Licella, an Australian company, may have found a viable way.
“So the process works by taking heat and cutting the plastic into small
pieces,” said University of Sydney Professor Thomas Maschmeyer, who created
the groundbreaking technological solution along with CEO Len Humphreys.
“The plastic goes from a solid to a wax, to a liquid, to a gas, and that
process is called pyrolysis,” he told Xinhua.
A number of researchers have been looking into pyrolysis for a number of
years as a way to solve the world’s plastic crisis, and it’s been very
unsuccessful so far.
That’s because the process gives rise to an unstable oil with a very low
liquid yield that’s mostly unusable.
But by employing a new patented technique involving something scientists
call “supercritical water”, Maschmeyer and the team at Licella have managed
to make it work.
Most people know water in the form of solid, liquid or gas, and gas can
become so compressed that it acts like a liquid at a certain temperature and
pressure, which is a state called supercritical.
“So what happens is, the water suddenly changes from steam into a solvent
that dissolves things… and we’re able to activate the hydrogen in the water
and it then reacts with the decomposing plastic and then we add (more)
hydrogen to the decomposing plastic to stabilize it.”
As a result, the liquids yields are between 80-90 percent, making the
process extremely viable economically.
The finished product can then be turned into new plastics, diesel gas
oils, industrial waxes and even road bitumen.
Already with a demonstration plant in Sydney, Maschmeyer said the company
is now set to launch their first commercial facility in Britain next year.
The professor said there’s always going to be more than one answer, as
there’s no “silver bullet”, but they have found one answer to a large chunk
of the plastic waste around the world.
BSS/XINHUA/FI/ 1325 hrs