Jul 5, 2019 in Blog Articles, News Articles
Scientists Turn Plastic Water Bottles into Jet Fuel

Researchers at Washington State University have discovered a method for turning plastic waste into jet fuel. They melted plastic waste at high temperatures between 430°C and 571°C along with activated carbon as a catalyst. The scientists combined waste products such as plastic bags, water bottles and milk bottles, grinding them down to three millimeter pellets.

“Plastic is hard to break down,” said Hanwu Lei, an associate professor in WSU’s Department of Biological System Engineering. “You have to add a catalyst to help break the chemical bonds. There is a lot of hydrogen in plastics, which is a key component in fuel… the fuel is very good quality, and the byproduct gasses produced are high quality and useful as well.”

Of course the product would need to be filtered which is of interest to Filcon Filters. But the main subject of interest is the fact that if this method can be scaled up, it would result in less pressure on landfills and help keep plastic out of the oceans. Filcon Filters supports all efforts and discoveries which can benefit the environment.