A professor at Virginia Tech's Department of Chemistry is exploring a process that can turn plastics into soaps, detergents, lubricants, and other products to reduce environmental waste.
After touring a chemical plant as an undergraduate, Greg Liu found his calling: "to alleviate or stop the industry from polluting the environment," as Phys.org explained.
"I realized that this was not going to be the sustainable way of our future. Pollution was everywhere; water, soil, road, you name it. Workers were in unbearable working conditions. I didn't want to be in an environment like that, nor our future generations," Liu said in the piece.
"That basically drove me to think, 'OK, I must pursue an advanced degree to change the way we work in the chemical industry.'"
Now, as a professor, Liu is sharing his research with a team of undergraduate and graduate students with the goal of producing useful products from plastic waste in order to reduce the environmental impact of the industry.
The process involves using thermolysis to break down the material through the application of heat, triggering chemical reactions. Their purpose-built reactor heats plastics to 650 or 750 degrees Fahrenheit in order to break it down into chemical compounds.
Phys.org explained the byproducts include gas, which can be captured and used for fuel, along with a minimal amount of solids, and the most important product: oil.
Liu's research resulted in a way to change the chemistry of the oil and convert it into soaps, detergents, lubricants, and more.
"These materials are stable," Liu shared, displaying a container on his desk.
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"This vial of soap has been in my office for, I would say, a year already. … You could use it to wash your hands and dishes. We have used it to wash our lab glassware in the laboratory."
If Liu's research team can find a path to profitability for their breakthrough process, it could mean a way forward for businesses while reducing plastic pollution.
Recycling, while useful, isn't as successful as one might think. A report by the United Nations explained that only around 9% of all plastics are recycled, while 79% still end up in landfills or nature.
Converting plastics into compounds that can be repurposed solves a problem that recycling struggles with, which is that the chemicals released during the process can harm workers and ecosystems.
While there are some other solutions, such as using plastic that rapidly decomposes, or just finding non-plastic alternatives for packaging, it's an issue that won't be going away any time soon. This is why Liu and his research team's work is important for the future.
"I hope, down the road, we find a solution, and I hope plastic is no longer a problem to worry about. I hope, in time, society will take care of all these waste materials," Liu explained in the report.
"We can generate useful chemicals and materials from waste, and hopefully we can close the loop of carbon and plastics. That is my dream. I believe we can achieve it, but it's going to take a while. With everyone's will, we will solve it."
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