Researchers in Sweden claim to have developed technology that will allow all plastic waste to be recycled, and transformed into new products from this material.
According to the Chalmers University of Technology group, the process can break down any plastic waste at a molecular level and the resulting gases can be transformed into new plastics, of the same quality as the original. What's more, the new process could "transform current plastic factories into recycling refineries".
Henrik Thunman, leader of the group and professor of energy technology at Chalmers University, said that plastic's resilience can be seen as an advantage. “The fact that it does not degrade makes circular, circular use possible, creating real value for used plastic and therefore an economic incentive to collect it.
"We must not forget that plastic is a fantastic material: it provides us with products that we could otherwise only dream of. The problem is that it is manufactured at such a low cost, that it is cheaper to produce new plastics from fossil fuels than from the reuse of plastic waste, "he pointed out.
The team explained that by finding the right temperature - around 850 degrees Celsius - and the right heating rate and residence times, they were able to convert 200kg per hour of plastic waste into a useful gas mixture. This can be recycled at a molecular level to become new plastic materials with the same quality as virgin plastic.
The team said it was now moving from initial feasibility testing to focus on developing a more detailed analysis project. "This knowledge is necessary to expand the process from a few tons of plastic per day to hundreds of tons. That's when it becomes commercially interesting," said Thunman.
The experiments were carried out at the Chalmers Power Centra facility in Gothenburg and the research results were published in the journal Sustainable Materials and Technologies last week.
