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A State-of-the-Art Review on the Technological Advancements for the Sustainable Management of Plastic Waste in Consort with the Generation of Energy and Value-Added Chemicals

Catalysts 2023 37 citations

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This review examined technological advances for converting plastic waste into energy and value-added chemicals, covering pyrolysis, gasification, and catalytic processes as sustainable alternatives to landfilling, given that global plastic waste generation reached approximately 380 million tonnes in 2022.

Plastic waste poses a serious threat to the environment and it has been increasing at an alarming rate. In 2022, global plastic waste generation was reported to be around 380 million tonnes as compared to 353 million tonnes in 2019. Production of liquid fuel from plastic waste is regarded as a viable method for disposing of the plastic and utilizing its energy. Currently, a wide range of technologies have been explored for turning plastic waste into fuel, including the conventional pyrolysis, incineration, gasification and advanced oxidation. However, a systematic summary and comparative analysis of various technologies has still not reported. Traditional non-biodegradable plastic waste (NPW) treatment methods include landfilling and incineration, but these methods encounter bottlenecks and are unable to adequately address NPW issues. This review attempts to present a thorough summary of treatment methods for plastic waste (both conventional and novel treatment technologies that have recently been reported), examine their mechanism and their current state of development. Furthermore, the superiority and drawbacks of each technology are analysed and the prospects of technology application are proposed. By tackling the problems of white pollution and energy scarcity, this review intends to inspire the use of solid waste as a source of energy.

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