Turning plastic waste into valuable chemicals with single-atom catalysts
Phys.org••technology
Key Points:
- Researchers at Nanjing Forestry University and Tsinghua University have developed a new method to convert polystyrene (PS) plastic waste into toluene, a valuable industrial chemical, using a process called hydro-pyrolysis involving heating PS in hydrogen.
- The process uses a two-step reactor system where PS is first pyrolyzed into vapor intermediates, then transformed into toluene via hydrogenolysis over a ruthenium single-atom catalyst, achieving over 99% selectivity and 83.5% yield.
- Life-cycle and economic analyses indicate this method can reduce the carbon footprint of toluene production by 53% and produce toluene at a cost of $0.61/kg, lower than current
