In a first, US-China team turns plastic waste into petrol in 1 step

Scientists in the US and China say they have developed a one-step method to safely turn toxic mixed plastic waste into petrol, with more than 95 per cent efficiency at room temperature.

Compared to conventional ways of turning plastic into fuel, their process requires less energy, less equipment and fewer steps, making it scalable for industrial applications.

At the end of this conversion process are the main components of petrol or gasoline, chemical raw materials, and hydrochloric acid. That means the end product could be used for water treatment, metal processing, pharmaceuticals, food production or the petroleum industry.

“The method supports a circular economy by converting diverse plastic waste into valuable products in a single step,” the researchers wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Science on August 14.

The team comprises researchers from the US Department of Energy-funded Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Columbia University, the Technical University of Munich, and East China Normal University (ECNU).

This is the first time that difficult-to-degrade mixed plastic waste has been efficiently converted into premium petrol at ambient temperature and pressure in just one step, according to a social media post by ECNU on August 18.