Dr. Jie Huang, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Missouri S&T, is part of an international team whose research on converting plastic waste into fuel and valuable chemicals has been published in Nature Chemical Engineering.
The study introduces a highly efficient and catalyst-free method of pyrolysis – a process that uses heat in the absence of oxygen to break down plastics at the molecular level. The new approach uses a 3D-printed electrically heated carbon column reactor that allows researchers to achieve record-high yields of converting plastic waste into chemicals for fuels and other applications.
“This research demonstrates a practical strategy to turn one of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges into valuable resources,” said Huang, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Missouri S&T.
Joining Huang in the project are Missouri S&T researchers Bohong Zhang and Farhan Mumtaz, both members of Huang’s research team. The study was led by Yale Engineering professors Liangbing Hu and Shu Hu, and also included collaborators from Purdue University, the University of Delaware, West Virginia University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Princeton University, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s BOTTLE Consortium.
The team’s findings address the limitations of traditional pyrolysis methods, which often require costly catalysts or result in low conversion rates. By using a reactor with a hierarchical porous structure, the researchers demonstrated greater control over the chemical reactions and reduced inefficiencies such as coking.
Tests using polyethylene – one of the world’s most common plastics – produced a record yield, converting nearly 66% of the plastic into usable chemical products.
“These results are very promising and show great potential for real-world application,” said Shu Hu, assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering at Yale University.
The study, “Catalyst-free hierarchical pyrolysis of plastics into fuels and chemicals,” is available online at Nature Chemical Engineering.