this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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Making hydrogen from waste plastic could pay for itself (techxplore.com)
submitted 2 years ago by bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 years ago (3 children)

"We know that polyethylene, for example, is made of 86% carbon and 14% hydrogen, and we demonstrated that we are able to recover up to 68% of that atomic hydrogen as gas with a 94% purity," Wyss said. "Developing the methods and expertise to characterize and quantify all the gases, including hydrogen, produced by this method was a difficult but rewarding process for me

The hero we need

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

How much energy is used to do so and how much CO2 is released as part of the process?

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Doesn't say, but if the electricity used is from renewables then it's irrelevant, as it can potentially produce graphene at 5% of the current price

Found this re co2

Compared to commercial methods for carbon nanotube production that are being used right now, ours uses about 90% less energy and generates 90%-94% less carbon dioxide," Wyss said.

https://phys.org/news/2023-02-joule-technique-efficiently-would-be-pollution.html

If they're making graphene and hydrogen then there can't be much left over can there?

[–] MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Not quite. This is greenwashing. the company funding the research is the world's largest offshore drilling company. You got suckered or are trying to sucker in other people

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works -2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Rice University are greenwashing?

And so what if an energy company is paying for research into hydrogen and plastic waste upcycling?

Edit. the United States Army Corps of Engineers gave them funding...

[–] MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The army is one of the biggest ghg emitters in the world. Now I'm certain you're just sharing propaganda. Why would a fossil fuel company push hydrogen technology? Because hydrogen production requires fossil fuels.

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works -2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Woah there buddy. You said it was the biggest offshore drilling company a minute ago and cast aspersions over the scientists involved at Rice

Hydrogen does not require fossil fuels...

This company makes ammonium nitrate from renewable energy and green hydrogen

https://www.atlasagro.ag/

Maybe pump your brakes calling everyone propagandists until you actually understand the technology involved

[–] pete@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

So, the get 8% of the bottle into a usable form . . . by turning plastic bottles into gases. So where does the rest of the bottle go? How much energy is used for that?

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Second paragraph...

In this work, we converted waste plastics—including mixed waste plastics that don't have to be sorted by type or washed—into high-yield hydrogen gas and high-value graphene