Turning environmental waste into useful chemical resources could solve many of the inevitable challenges of our growing amounts of discarded plastics, paper and food waste, according to new research.
Turning environmental waste into useful chemical resources could solve many of the inevitable challenges of our growing amounts of discarded plastics, paper and food waste, according to new research.
In a significant breakthrough, researchers from The Ohio State University have developed a technology to transform materials like plastics and agricultural waste into syngas, a substance most often used to create chemicals and fuels like formaldehyde and methanol.
Using simulations to test how well the system could break down waste, scientists found that their approach, called chemical looping, could produce high-quality syngas in a more efficient manner than other similar chemical techniques. Altogether, this refined process saves energy and is safer for the environment, said Ishani Karki Kudva, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State.
“We use syngas for important chemicals that are required in our day-to-day life,” said Kudva. “So improving its purity means that we can utilize it in a variety of new ways.”
Read more at Ohio State University
