Environment

Local researchers devise way to turn plastic into fuel

The inspiration for the idea came from the amount of plastic that accumulates in the oceans

NBC Universal, Inc.

Every year the world produces 430 million tons of plastic, according to the United Nations. Much of that plastic ends up in our oceans.

According to the UN, 11 million metric tons of plastic enters the ocean every year.

Now, one group of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute has come up with a groundbreaking way to turn that plastic into fuel and it could be a game changer when it comes to cleaning up our oceans.

“We were inspired by this problem of plastics accumulating in our oceans,” said Michael Timko, a professor of chemical engineering at WPI.

Marine scientist and artist Ethan Estess gets packages from people all over the country with waste pulled from the oceans that he then turns into art. The goal of his work is not just to clean up garbage and create art — but to draw attention to policies creating the waste. NBCLX contributor Greg Bledsoe brings his Family Geography Project to Santa Cruz, California, to tell this artist’s story.

The problem is big: more than twice the size of Texas. It’s dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating island of plastic and other trash between Hawaii and California.

Groups are working hard to rid the water of plastic. Ships collect the waste, haul it away and recycle it. Now researchers at WPI discovered that the plastic floating in the ocean could be used for something else.

“What we found was that there is a lot of energy in these locations,” said Timko.

Timko and a team came up with a way to turn that plastic into fuel, which solves two problems at once.

“Now instead of going back and forth between the port and the location and actually probably spending more time in transit rather than actually collecting the plastics now, instead, you can use a much smaller ship, which is much more efficient,” he said.

Essentially, a self-powered cleanup turning marine plastics into what these researchers call, ‘blue diesel.’

The whole process would happen in a reactor on board a ship.

Nonprofit Clean Up the Lake, currently in the process of removing trash from Lake Tahoe's entire 72-mile-long shoreline, has pulled out 18,215 pounds of garbage with 28 miles to go.

“The chemical bonds that are in plastics and the bonds that are in fuel are basically the same,” said Timko.

Elizabeth Belden, a fifth year PhD candidate said their discovery could also be deployed on rivers, which is where most of the ocean’s plastics come from.

“If we don't prevent the plastic entering the ocean in the first place, it's a never ending battle to try to clean up the ocean,” she said.

Belden said the discovered is exciting.

“Are we trying to save the world? We're trying to preserve the environment so that it's more livable for people,” said Timko.

The researchers at WPI said they hope their discovery can one day be put into use in the real world.

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