A team of researchers has solved one of the major roadblocks to making cost-effective jet fuel that burns better for the planet — and they even reuse plastic waste at the same time, according to Tech Xplore.
The study was led by Hong Lu, a research scientist at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, which is a part of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Traditional jet fuel is made using planet-warming crude oil, but there are plenty of other ways to make it without using oil. However, those more eco-friendly options lack enough of one crucial ingredient that crude oil doesn't: aromatic hydrocarbons.
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Heck yes 👍 These compounds are also usually derived from oil, and a certain amount is required in jet fuel. They ensure the aircraft is safe and efficient by lubricating its parts and preventing leaks. Conventional jet fuel has remained dominant, in part, because natural fuel sources don't have enough of these additives and there hasn't been a cleaner way to make them, according to Tech Xplore.
That's where Lu and his team went to work.
They searched for a readily available material that had a high supply of hydrocarbons and found what they needed in polystyrene. While this type of plastic is tough to break down, it is widely used in things like takeout containers and styrofoam. It's all over landfills — about 2.5 million metric tons are produced each year in the U.S. alone — and it fits the chemical bill, so to speak, Tech Xplore explained.
Next, they broke the plastic down using heat and then used a chemical reaction to turn it into crude ethylbenzene — an aromatic hydrocarbon. From there, they were able to distill a 90% pure product, per Tech Xplore.
According to the outlet, the team's results showed that its plastic-based ethylbenzene's performance nearly matched that of an oil-based version of the compound. Yet it was cheaper to make, released less planet-warming gases, and ate up some plastic waste all at once. They also noted that the process could get even more efficient and planet-friendly with extra purification efforts.
This product's impact could sweep across the aviation industry, allow all types of planes to convert to clean-burning fuel sources, and help meet mid-century climate goals. The study's full findings are published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
"A lifecycle analysis of our ethylbenzene found it reduced carbon emissions by 50% to 60% compared with the ethylbenzene made from crude oil," Lu said, per Tech Xplore.
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