5 ms·
The press release is a lie. Looking at the diagram at the top, and reading just the abstract of the linked study, it's clear that the whole idea is to degrade
by 08-15 7y ago
The press release is a lie.
Looking at the diagram at the top, and reading just the abstract of the linked study, it's clear that the whole idea is to degrade plastic waste (through pyrolysis and/or oxidation) and use the degradation products in existing petrochemical plants. Unfortunately, plastics don't degrade only to valuable, reusable chemicals.
The study admits the lie: 100% recycling of plastics isn't expected, and they only get to "100% recovery of carbon" by first electrifying the plant and then "sequestering" the CO2 that forms anyway. Of course, 100% recovery of carbon in this meaningless sense can already be achieved by landfilling the plastics.
- gus_massa 7y agoI agree, the 100% part is an exaggeration. They say that some part of the plastic will go to CO2 and it can be later transformed to plastic, but this transformation needs a lot of energy and is expensive. They propose an alternative o store the CO2 in a safe place, that is also expensive. With this type of creative accounting, you can have a gasoline truck with zero CO2 emissions, because you collect somehow the CO2 in a giant tank and then transform it back to fuel (with a big cost of money and energy).