Plastic- a substance created for our need has now become a big problem. Due to its non-decaying nature, Plastic is creating pollution around the world, damaging the water bodies. Till now, the breakdown of Plastic is not environment-friendly. But, the scientists of Singapore have come up with a new idea of transforming Plastic into power generating chemicals.
Scientists said the quantities of Plastic have been piled up on land and dumped into seas across the world. These quantities are predominant in Asian countries, which are failing to handle the situation.
Scientists of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), in lab research, found an environment-friendly method that involves Plastic to be mixed with chemicals to form a solution and then exposed to artificial sunlight, which could breakdown Plastic. The solution formed is then broken down in six days under artificial sunlight, and they hope that in the future, this can be carried out under real sunlight.
Researchers in Singapore say that Plastic can be transformed into “formic acid,” which can be used in power plants to generate electricity, by using a catalyst which neither damages the environment nor is costly.
“We are able to transform plastics, which are polluting the oceans into useful chemicals,” said Soo Han Sen, who led the 2-year research project and is from NTU’s School of Physical and Mathematics Sciences. Han hopes to turn this process into a fully renewable process and is also Carbon neutral.
Till now, the methods used for the recycling of Plastic involved the melting down of fossil fuels, which generated a large amount of climate-damaging greenhouse gases. More labor and funds are required for this process as it has been done on small amounts of Plastic only.
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