Background

Plastics are incredibly useful but most aren’t biodegradable, with less than 10% being recycled, leading to serious environmental problems. Polyolefins like polyethylene and polypropylene make up over 60% of plastic waste. Existing methods for recycling these plastics into useful fuels and chemicals have drawbacks like low yields, long processing times, high temperatures/energy use, and inability to tune the products for different applications. A new approach is needed to effectively upcycle polyolefin waste on a practical scale.

Technology Overview

Imagine transforming those piles of plastic waste into valuable fuels and lubricants instead of pollutants. This groundbreaking invention does just that through a cost-efficient catalytic process. Hybrid catalysts facilitate the hydrocracking of polyolefin plastics into high-quality fuels and lubricant oils with