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Hydrocarbons can be recycled

• sanderjd 3y ago
  Tell me more.
  • bluGill 3y ago
    Plastics can be recycled. We also know how to put them in various other reactors to make synthetic hydrocarbons. The above processes are costly, but we know how to do it.
    • sanderjd 3y ago
      Ah I see. I didn't think either of the parent comments were talking about plastics. Is most oil turned into recycled plastics? I assumed that most oil is turned into combustible fuel, but maybe that's not true.
      • lazide 3y ago
        Seems like 8-12% is turned into plastics. Though it’s usually natural gas that is used, not oil directly. Natural gas is also used to produce fertilizer and explosives in large quantities.
        • sanderjd 3y ago
          But I think fertilizer and explosives are also not recyclable.
          • lazide 3y ago
            That depends on your definition I guess. They both do add a lot of nitrogen (and some carbon) to the atmosphere when ‘used’.
            • sanderjd 3y ago
              I'm struggling to figure out what definition of "recyclable" fits what you said. What definition are you thinking of?
              • lazide 3y ago
                I’m guessing I misread what you wrote and got the sense backwards.
      • bluGill 3y ago
        Most oil is not recycled. We know how to do it for all uses, but that doesn't mean we can. The energy costs make is not useful. If we had an infinite source of free energy we know how to recycle CO2 and h2o back into hydrocarbons.