New Chemical Process Transforms Waste Plastic into Jet Fuel
Chinese researchers have developed a groundbreaking chemical process that could transform waste plastic into valuable jet fuel components at a significantly lower cost. This innovation offers a highly promising potential solution to the growing global plastic pollution crisis, creating a pathway to repurpose materials that are notoriously difficult to degrade.
The new method was developed collaboratively by a research team from the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fudan University.
The Hydrogenolysis Method
The technology relies on hydrogenolysis, a chemical process that breaks down long plastic molecules into useful hydrocarbon products. Specifically, the researchers focused their efforts on polyolefins—including polyethylene and polypropylene.
Polyolefins are significant because they make up more than 60 percent of global plastic waste. Because of their incredibly strong chemical structure, these materials are difficult to degrade and create major environmental challenges. Traditional plastic recycling methods, such as landfilling and incineration, often result in heavy secondary pollution and a complete waste of otherwise valuable materials.
A Highly Efficient Nickel-Cobalt Catalyst
Unlike earlier recycling methods that depended on expensive noble metals, this new process uses a much more affordable catalyst containing both nickel and cobalt.
According to the researchers, introducing cobalt improves nickel’s ability to activate hydrogen and efficiently break carbon-carbon bonds. Crucially, it also reduces the excessive breakdown of the material into unwanted greenhouse gases like methane. This allows the chemical process to selectively produce more C8-C16 hydrocarbons, which are the primary components needed for jet fuel.
Under relatively mild operating conditions—specifically a 280°C temperature and a 3 MPa hydrogen pressure—the newly developed catalyst achieved remarkable results in the laboratory:
An 82.3 percent liquid product yield.
A 79 percent selectivity toward C8-C16 alkanes.
Environmental Impact and Future Challenges
When powered by renewable energy sources, the researchers found that this new hydrogenolysis process could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80 percent compared with conventional jet fuel production methods.
Despite these highly promising results, the technology currently remains at the laboratory stage. Before large-scale industrial adoption can occur, scientists still need to address several major hurdles:
Industrial Scaling: Testing whether the process operates efficiently at a massive industrial scale.
Waste Contamination: Handling real-world mixed plastic waste, as impurities and dirt can damage the catalysts and drastically reduce their overall effectiveness.
Pre-treatment: Developing reliable and cost-effective pre-treatment methods to clean the raw plastic waste.
If successfully scaled, this technology could drastically reduce global plastic pollution while creating incredibly valuable aviation fuel products from everyday waste materials.