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Thermochemical Conversion of Plastic Waste into Fuels, Chemicals, and Value‐Added Materials: A Critical Review and Outlooks
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Researchers critically reviewed thermochemical conversion pathways—pyrolysis, gasification, and hydrothermal liquefaction—for plastic waste, concluding that while each method shows promise for producing fuels and chemicals, feedstock heterogeneity and catalyst deactivation remain key barriers to commercial scale-up.
Plastic waste is an emerging environmental issue for our society. Critical action to tackle this problem is to upcycle plastic waste as valuable feedstock. Thermochemical conversion of plastic waste has received growing attention. Although thermochemical conversion is promising for handling mixed plastic waste, it typically occurs at high temperatures (300-800 °C). Catalysts can play a critical role in improving the energy efficiency of thermochemical conversion, promoting targeted reactions, and improving product selectivity. This Review aims to summarize the state-of-the-art of catalytic thermochemical conversions of various types of plastic waste. First, general trends and recent development of catalytic thermochemical conversions including pyrolysis, gasification, hydrothermal processes, and chemolysis of plastic waste into fuels, chemicals, and value-added materials were reviewed. Second, the status quo for the commercial implementation of thermochemical conversion of plastic waste was summarized. Finally, the current challenges and future perspectives of catalytic thermochemical conversion of plastic waste including the design of sustainable and robust catalysts were discussed.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.