Sorry but this article and the reaction to it seems to be sensationalized. the outrage here doesn’t match up with the actual chemistry taking place here.
Folks, Gasification of plastics is not a new technology. plastics contain organic molecules and can be decomposed via gasification into syngas which is then refined into sustainable fuels such as sustainable aviation fuel or renewable diesel. By definition, You don’t actually burn the plastic. You expose it to high heat without oxygen so that it doesn’t combust- this is what causes the molecular breakdown of the plastic into syngas. This is the syngas that is collected and refined via Fischer tropsch into new hydrocarbons.
There are no intermediate steps where micro plastics or other chemicals could come out of a smokestack, and a plant operator wouldn’t want that anyway. (It’s wasteful of feedstock, and the plastic is worth more as syngas than as trash)
gadela08 t1_jab0lvt wrote
Reply to This “Climate-Friendly” Fuel Comes With an Astronomical Cancer Risk: Almost half of products cleared so far under the new federal biofuels program are not in fact biofuels — and the EPA acknowledges that the plastic-based ones may present an “unreasonable risk” to human health or the environment. by nastratin
Sorry but this article and the reaction to it seems to be sensationalized. the outrage here doesn’t match up with the actual chemistry taking place here.
Folks, Gasification of plastics is not a new technology. plastics contain organic molecules and can be decomposed via gasification into syngas which is then refined into sustainable fuels such as sustainable aviation fuel or renewable diesel. By definition, You don’t actually burn the plastic. You expose it to high heat without oxygen so that it doesn’t combust- this is what causes the molecular breakdown of the plastic into syngas. This is the syngas that is collected and refined via Fischer tropsch into new hydrocarbons.
There are no intermediate steps where micro plastics or other chemicals could come out of a smokestack, and a plant operator wouldn’t want that anyway. (It’s wasteful of feedstock, and the plastic is worth more as syngas than as trash)