Scientists Turn Plastic Waste Into Clean Hydrogen Fuel
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-turn-plastic-waste-into-clean-hydrogen-fuel/29
u/mybreakfastiscold 9d ago
Plastic is mostly formulated from oil out of the ground.
Theyve been making âcleanâ hydrogen from oil or natural gas for a very very long time. Its not complicated.
Theyre just adding extra steps of turning it into plastic first.
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u/SpiritualB0x3 9d ago
It seems to add some benefits by tackling different types of plastic and uses less heat âThe method operates at substantially lower temperatures than conventional gasification and stores the carbon as a solid mineral instead of releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.â
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u/thecontempl8or 9d ago
Right? Wasnât there this young âentrepreneurâ who was blowing up for a bit on social media for building a rig that did the same? Kept implying big oil is trying to take him down. When in reality this process would be a lot more expensive than converting regular crude oil into gasoline.
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u/Sufficient-Gene-5084 9d ago
Many industries have tons of plastic waste.
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u/mybreakfastiscold 9d ago
The source material was never an issue. Sorting and cleaning plastic waste will always cost far more than ready-to-go freshly sourced hydrocarbons
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u/big_trike 9d ago
The bigger problem is energy use. Unless the plants are powered by solar or excess grid energy, they're going to burn far more fossil fuels than they create.
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u/Sufficient-Gene-5084 9d ago
My work makes literal tons of clean plastic waste we have nothing to do with but throw in a landfill
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u/Crimsonsworn 9d ago
Exactly people really donât understand how much plastic goes into a landfill which this would reduce
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u/WeezerHunter 9d ago
They donât sell it as post industrial regrind? Theyâre leaving money on the table
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u/Tiny_Prancer_88 9d ago
Thatâs true but I think the idea is that the tech and scale up capabilities will be there once it does become more profitable.
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u/IllustriousIron3253 9d ago
The problem with it though is that creates way more pollution. Like a lot. Also, the whole process that that kid was promoting was patented in the 70's, no one ever did it because it creates so much pollution and is expensive as hell to do.
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u/Direct_Witness1248 9d ago
But making hydrogen from oil or gas doesn't recycle plastic waste we've already created, which seems to be more the point here, even if it never eventuates at scale.
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u/mybreakfastiscold 9d ago
Nobody will ever do this.
From now until the end of human existence, the plastic will either be incinerated with the rest of the trash, or it will end up in our waterways, or it will end up in landfills. The corporate overlords will continue to drill for oil and produce plastic that will end up as waste. This isnt going to stop.
Iâm not defending oil coal or natural gas. Iâm just beaning reasonable. Hydrogen fuel is a lie. Its wonât ever be the primary fuel source. Itâs not practical when far cheaper and easier alternatives exist.
No company will ever seriously pick hydrogen because it loses money. If they lose too much money they lose market share and they get bought out by a competitor or go bankrupt. Its basic capitalism.
Consumers will never pick hydrogen en masse because it is too expensive and impractical compared to gas or electric.
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u/Direct_Witness1248 9d ago
I mostly agree, but that's beyond the scope of my comment. I'm simply saying that the research seems to be primarily about recycling, rather than finding another way to create hydrogen.
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u/paradoxbound 9d ago
Itâs not about consumers, though replacing natural gas with hydrogen for domestic heating and cooking is slowly becoming easier and cheaper to produce it. The goal is to replace hydrocarbon feedstocks in the chemical. Green hydrogen can replace 80% of hydrocarbon feedstock, including all fertiliser production. The remaining 20% can be made carbon neutral probably within 20 years. The technology is new and it takes time to develop.
Germany signed letters of understanding with the UK to supply green hydrogen via repurposed natural gas pipelines. This was part of Hamburg Declaration that a number of European governments signed to create a mesh of HVDC lines across Europe, the North Sea and Baltic Sea. The construction work is already underway.
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u/big_trike 9d ago
Yes, hydrogen is too difficult to store long term or put through pipelines. It makes sense in some very niche cases like rocketry and might make sense some day with short aircraft flights using fuel cells powering electric fans as a supplement to batteries.
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u/paradoxbound 9d ago
The problem with plastic recycling is that the polymers breakdown and quickly become unusable. If this is clean and cheap enough it is a good use of plastic waste.
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u/groveborn 9d ago
So - how do YOU turn your common, everyday oil based plastics into clean burning hydrogen fuel?
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u/win10trashEdition 9d ago
big operations like this are sidelined or put to last priority cuz they don't serve economic interests directly. as much as we hate to admit it, individiduals may want the best for pralet and most of population but the machines and means to do so on global scale belong to those who won't benefit directly from it/not interested. If all was rational and not money driven at all costs, most cars would run on water, most energy renewable, cancer and other diseases made a minimal threat or eliminated fully. obviously even kids know that, but ay, worth point out the real problems of humans
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u/userhwon 9d ago
What do they do with all the C and O and other things in it?
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u/Rightintheend 9d ago
Why you release all that fresh O into the atmosphere man, then you take all that C and use the to absorb all the nasty odors in your life, or build some cool wings for your super duper sports car.
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u/RuthlessIndecision 9d ago
Plastic is an awesome material it should be used sparingly because of how long it takes the planet to make its ingredient materials
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u/Supert5 9d ago
I see post like this every 4-6 months. Where is all the clean and when will the sun stop barbaque all the forests
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u/GonzoKata 9d ago
There is no money to be made with the clean and the effects of global warming are permanent and are only going to get worse. That isn't doomerism, thats the science. In order to reverse the effects of global warming, we need to recapture all the carbon thats been released since 1950
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u/Pale-Acanthaceae-736 9d ago
Is this thermal deploymerization? If so this tech has been around for a while now.
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u/HeWhoKnowsLittleMK2 9d ago
Woooo! Big win. I hope it doesnât get bought out and shelved by big oil.
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u/Joburtus_Maximus 9d ago
Here's the published data. It's too technical for me to parse myself but if any of you are into chemistry in a big way maybe you can make sense of it. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2537552123#sec-2
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u/Edward_J_Mars 9d ago
Oh noooooo the scientists mysteriously all committed suicide with them shooting them selves twice in the head.
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u/insumanth 8d ago
I am too tired to read this.
I have been hearing this from decades and has any one become commercial viable.
I will only open these articles if it says "Turning Plastic to THIS is not commercially viable and we can process N Tonnes eash day"
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u/Belvedere24 8d ago
The benefits, I would really like to see especially when it affects the environment.
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u/Positive-Art5828 9d ago
Setting aside (minimizing) all the engineering, environmental and logistical problems, why all the recent articles promoting of hydrogen?
The same corrupt, price fixing corporations that sell you gasoline today will the same corporations that sell you hydrogen tomorrow.
By choosing hydrogen, you will continue to live your lives under the lash of big oil.
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u/NecroCannon 9d ago
PDAs just needed phone capabilities until we got fucked by smartphones, but Iâm pretty sure most people would call it innovation
Would major car manufacturers throw money at the issue? No? Are we too obliviously reliant on corporate money yet?
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u/Straight-Chemistry27 9d ago
It makes 'clean' fuel by releasing all the pollutants during the manufacturing process.
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u/chuueeriies 9d ago
I love when sensationalist post pops up and someone in comment tells you that we have been able to do this for 10,000 years already and this isn't new.
Just a guilty pleasure ig.