Scientists turn mixed plastic waste into clean hydrogen
In New York, Waste 360 reported that scientists in California and South Korea have developed a unique experimental method to manage mixed plastic waste by converting it into clean hydrogen while trapping carbon before it is released into the atmosphere.
Study co-author Woo-Jae Kim, a professor at Ewha Womans University, Korea, believes the thermal technology could achieve a $4-per-kilogram hydrogen cost. This would put it in line with North American subsidized rates for green hydrogen (produced via water electrolysis), which costs $3.50 to $6.00 per kg, according to the report.
“Recycling would be the best answer if you could separate all plastic types. Then you could generate new plastic with the same compound. But separating them is difficult. So, we are extracting their hydrogen [to manufacture other products],” Kim said.
“The key advantage is that we are not simply converting plastic into products—we are trying to produce hydrogen while keeping the carbon out of the atmosphere,” said Alissa Park, study co-author and a chemical and biomolecular engineering professor at UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.
Category: Research
