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Papers
20 resultsShowing papers similar to Rescuing the Environment: Turning (Micro)plastics into Energy Through Gasification
ClearReimagining plastics waste as energy solutions: challenges and opportunities
This review examines the potential of converting plastic waste into energy through waste-to-energy and waste-to-fuel technologies, particularly in developing nations where recycling infrastructure is limited. Researchers assessed various conversion methods including pyrolysis and gasification, evaluating their efficiency and environmental trade-offs. The study emphasizes that energy recovery from plastic waste could help address both the growing plastic pollution crisis and energy needs in underserved regions.
Materials challenges and opportunities to address growing micro/nanoplastics pollution: a review of thermochemical upcycling
This review examined thermochemical upcycling technologies including pyrolysis, gasification, and liquefaction as approaches to valorize micro- and nanoplastic waste, assessing the material challenges and opportunities for converting environmental plastic pollution into useful fuels or chemical feedstocks.
Techno-Economic Review of Pyrolysis and Gasification Plants for Thermochemical Recovery of Plastic Waste and Economic Viability Assessment of Small-Scale Implementation
This review evaluates the technical and economic viability of pyrolysis and gasification for converting plastic waste into fuel, finding that small-scale implementation faces significant cost challenges. Converting plastic waste into fuel reduces the amount available to degrade into microplastics in the environment, but economic barriers limit widespread adoption.
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
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.
Microplastic Recovery and Conversion Pathways: The Most Recent Advancements in Technologies for the Generation of Renewable Energy
This review examines current technologies for recovering energy from microplastics, evaluating pyrolysis, gasification, electrochemical methods, and hybrid biomass-based approaches in terms of energy balance, carbon conversion, product composition, process efficiency, and scalability. The authors found pyrolysis to be the most scalable method, producing valuable oils and gases, but highlighted that all reviewed technologies face challenges handling the heterogeneous composition and small particle sizes characteristic of MP feedstocks.
A Critical Review of SCWG in the Context of Available Gasification Technologies for Plastic Waste
This review critically assessed supercritical water gasification (SCWG) in the context of available plastic waste gasification technologies, evaluating thermochemical conversion efficiency, product gas composition, and scalability challenges compared to conventional pyrolysis and gasification methods for non-recyclable plastic end-of-life management.
Gateway of Landfilled Plastic Waste Towards Circular Economy in Europe
This paper examines the challenges of recovering plastic from landfills in Europe and how it could contribute to a circular economy. Recovering and recycling landfilled plastics could reduce the environmental plastic burden, including microplastic generation from degrading landfill waste.
Solid Waste Gasification: Comparison of Single- and Multi-Staged Reactors
This study compared single-stage and multi-stage gasification reactors for converting municipal solid waste — including plastic waste — into energy. Better plastic waste-to-energy technologies could reduce the volume of plastic that enters landfills and the environment, helping limit the generation of microplastics.
Upcycling of waste plastics: strategies, status-quo, and prospects
This review examines strategies for upcycling waste plastics into valuable products as an alternative to landfilling and incineration, which generate microplastics and carbon emissions respectively. Researchers survey chemical recycling methods including pyrolysis, gasification, and catalytic processes that can convert common plastics like PET, polyethylene, and polystyrene into fuels, chemicals, and new materials. The study highlights the urgent need for more effective recycling technologies to address the growing gap between plastic production and waste management capacity.
Harvesting marine plastic pollutants-derived renewable energy: A comprehensive review on applied energy and sustainable approach.
This review summarized recent research on recovering renewable energy from marine plastic waste through biological, chemical, and thermal conversion processes, evaluating each pathway's carbon efficiency, global warming potential, and economic viability as part of a circular economy approach to plastic pollution.
Strategies and technologies for sustainable plastic waste treatment and recycling
This review covers current and emerging methods for recycling and treating plastic waste to reduce environmental pollution. The authors emphasize that improperly managed plastics break down into microplastics that contaminate ecosystems, and they evaluate strategies including chemical recycling, biodegradation, and energy recovery as more sustainable alternatives to landfilling.
Microwave Plasma Gasification for the Restoration of Urban Rivers and Lakes, and the Elimination of Oceanic Garbage Patches
This review explores using microwave plasma gasification—a process that converts waste to energy and raw materials—to clean plastic pollution from rivers, lakes, and ocean garbage patches. While potentially applicable to large-scale plastic remediation, the technology is in early stages and discussed primarily in the context of developing countries lacking conventional waste management infrastructure.
Recycling and Management of Microplastic Waste
This review examines recycling and management strategies for plastic waste, describing the technical and economic challenges of reducing plastic pollution and the remediation approaches that have been attempted to address microplastic accumulation in the environment.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Impacts Towards Plastic Waste by Using Pyrolysis
This study used life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impact of converting plastic waste into fuel through pyrolysis. The findings suggest pyrolysis can reduce plastic waste in landfills while generating usable energy, though careful emission management is required.
The myth of hazardous-to-wealth concept: transformation of marine microplastics to pyrolysis gas
Researchers collected marine microplastics from a Southeast Asian coastal area and tested whether pyrolysis could convert them into useful syngas, achieving an average syngas yield of about 35% and producing a highly porous char. The study demonstrates a potential waste-to-energy pathway that could both reduce the environmental load of marine microplastics and generate valuable gaseous fuel products. Converting microplastic waste into energy resources could provide an economic incentive for collection and remediation efforts.
Plastic pollution and degradation pathways: A review on the treatment technologies
This review surveys different methods for breaking down plastic pollution in water, including ultraviolet light, mechanical processes, and microbial degradation. The study suggests that microorganisms and microalgae can work together in fuel cell systems to both decompose microplastics and generate clean energy, offering a promising approach to tackling plastic waste.
Perspectives on Thermochemical Recycling of End-of-Life Plastic Wastes to Alternative Fuels
This review examined thermochemical recycling technologies including pyrolysis, liquefaction, and gasification for converting plastic waste into clean fuels, discussing operating principles, barriers, and the potential for co-processing plastics with biomass.
Systemically Understanding Aqueous Photocatalytic Upgrading of Microplastic to Fuels
This review examines photocatalytic methods for converting microplastic waste into renewable fuels using solar energy. These approaches could transform plastic pollutants into useful energy sources rather than allowing them to accumulate in the environment and food chain.
Microplastic degradation as a sustainable concurrent approach for producing biofuel and obliterating hazardous environmental effects: A state-of-the-art review
This review explores approaches to degrading microplastics through thermal and biological methods, which could simultaneously reduce environmental pollution and produce usable biofuels. Researchers highlight how certain microorganisms and heat-based processes can break down microplastics into simpler compounds that can serve as energy sources. The study suggests these dual-purpose strategies could help address both the plastic pollution crisis and energy security challenges.
Recycling of Plastics as a Strategy to Reduce Life Cycle GHG Emission, Microplastics and Resource Depletion
This study quantified the environmental benefits of recycling widely consumed plastic polymers, demonstrating that increased plastic recycling significantly reduces life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, microplastic pollution, and resource depletion.