Low-emissions flash method upcycles waste plastic into "free" hydrogen

Good news! Dedicated to all those who suffer from plastophobia! 😊

"Researchers have used a low-emissions method to harvest hydrogen and graphene from waste plastics. They say it not only solves environmental problems like plastic pollution and greenhouse gas production, but the value of the graphene by-product could offset the costs of producing hydrogen. ...
“In this work, we converted waste plastics – including mixed waste plastics that don’t have to be sorted by type or washed – into high-yield hydrogen gas and high-value graphene,” ...
In the current study, the researchers exposed plastic waste to rapid flash Joule heating for about four seconds. Raising the temperature up to 3,100 kelvin vaporizes the hydrogen present in the plastic, leaving behind graphene, a light, durable material comprised of a single layer of carbon atoms. ...

“We know that polyethylene, for example, is made of 86% carbon and 14% hydrogen, and we demonstrated that we are able to recover up to 68% of that atomic hydrogen as gas with a 94% purity,” ..."

From the abstract:

"Hydrogen gas (H2) is the primary storable fuel for pollution-free energy [???] production, with over 90 million tonnes used globally per year. More than 95% of H2 is synthesized through metal-catalyzed steam methane reforming that produces 11 tonnes of CO2 per tonne H2. “Green H2” from water electrolysis using renewable energy evolves no CO2, but costs 2–3x more, making it presently economically unviable. Here  we report catalyst-free conversion of waste plastic into clean H2 along with high purity graphene. The scalable procedure evolves no CO2 when deconstructing polyolefins and produces H2 in purities up to 94% at high mass yields. Sale of graphene byproduct at just 5% of its current value yields H2 production at negative cost. Life-cycle assessment demonstrates a 39–84% reduction in emissions compared to other H2 production methods, suggesting the flash H2 process to be an economically viable, clean H2 production route."

Low-emissions flash method upcycles waste plastic into "free" hydrogen

Making hydrogen from waste plastic could pay for itself  (primary news source) Graphene by-product offsets ‘flash’ hydrogen production costs, Rice study finds

Here is a previous article about a previous study about their rapid flash Joule heating method: Potential for profits gives Rice lab’s plastic waste project promise ‘Flash Joule’ technique efficiently turns would-be pollution into valuable nanomaterials

Synthesis of Clean Hydrogen Gas from Waste Plastic at Zero Net Cost (no public access)

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of layered stacks of nano-scale flash graphene sheets formed from waste plastic.