New process turns mixed plastic waste directly into hydrogen fuel without sorting (phys.org)

submitted 1 week ago by Hypx@piefed.social to c/hydrogen@piefed.social

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Plastic has become a ubiquitous part of modern life—in water bottles, shopping bags and car dashboards. But once discarded, it is among the hardest materials on Earth to recycle. Most recycling processes require plastics to be sorted by type first, a step that is both labor-intensive and costly. As a result, only 9% of discarded plastic is actually recycled, while 79% is dumped in landfills and another 12% is incinerated, releasing carbon dioxide in the process.

Now, a team co-led by researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and Ewha Womans University in South Korea has demonstrated a new chemical approach that converts a mixture of the three most common plastics directly into high-purity hydrogen fuel at temperatures far below conventional gasification. The process locks carbon dioxide away as a solid mineral without releasing the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago

I mean this is not about energy efficiency as much as pollution. If the energy comes from green sources and waste is a "carbon dioxide solid mineral?" then it would avoid microplastics and such going into the environment. If it was good in this way the best way to pay for it would be plastics being taxed in the amount to pay for post use processing with the rate depending on type and usage. Not sure if the waster material is useful. At best I could see building so given how littel the hydrogen brings it might be equivalently useful. I mean there are projects to such co2 out of the air and make it into a solid mineral although yeah it has the energy thing. I think this like those sorta need us to be 100% on non fossil fuel energy to really work although if they have dedicated solar/wind or such powering them it would make sense. Since thes can sorta work on demand that would make some sense.

this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2026

36 points (100.0% liked)

Hydrogen

708 readers

17 users here now

A community about hydrogen and its use as a way to fight climate change.

Rules

All posts must be about hydrogen, fuel cells, or a related topic.
Posters that only attack hydrogen will not be tolerated.

This community has been migrated from:
fedia.io/m/hydrogen
fedia.io/m/hydrogen@kbin.social(Original server is defunct)

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Hypx@piefed.social