by Mike Williams Rice
April 6, 2022
https://www.futurity.org/plastic-waste- ... 2721542-2/
Introduction:
(Futurity) The newly discovered chemical technique seems like a win-win for a pair of pressing environmental problems.
In the journal ACS Nano, researchers report that heating plastic waste in the presence of potassium acetate produces particles with nanometer-scale pores that trap carbon dioxide molecules.
These particles can be used to remove CO2 from flue gas streams, the researchers say.
“Point sources of CO2 emissions like power plant exhaust stacks can be fitted with this waste-plastic-derived material to remove enormous amounts of CO2 that would normally fill the atmosphere,” says James Tour, professor of chemistry and of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University. “It is a great way to have one problem, plastic waste, address another problem, CO2 emissions.”
A current process to pyrolyze plastic known as chemical recycling produces oils, gases, and waxes, but the carbon byproduct is nearly useless, Tour says. However, pyrolyzing plastic in the presence of potassium acetate produces porous particles able to hold up to 18% of their own weight in CO2 at room temperature.