Recycling old plastic into soap. Free Technical Library News

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Recycling old plastic into soap

23.08.2023

A team from the United States of America has made an amazing discovery by converting waste plastic materials into fatty acids, a key ingredient in soap making.

According to the study, plastic polymers are chemically similar to the fatty acids used in soaps. Guoliang Liu, an associate professor of chemistry at Virginia Tech, immediately drew attention to this analogy and suggested that the polyethylene from which plastic is made can be turned into fatty acids and then into high-quality soap. The main difficulty turned out to be the size of the molecular particles, but Liu developed a unique method that involved incinerating plastic.

According to the scientist, “When wood is burned, polymers such as cellulose decompose into short chains and then into gaseous molecules until completely oxidized. Similarly, we can use this process to decompose synthetic polyethylene. If we stop the decomposition at the stage of formation of small gaseous molecules, we get short polymer chains that are ideal for soap production."

Researchers have developed a special furnace-like reactor that allows the safe burning of plastic. At the bottom of the reactor, the temperature was high enough to break the polymer bonds, while at the top it was kept low to prevent complete decomposition. As a result of the study, a team of scientists collected the resulting residue and made soap.

The resulting product is the world's first sustainable soap made from plastic waste. It may have some unconventional color, but it successfully fulfills its main function, the scientists notice.

At the same time, Liu stressed that the problem of plastic pollution is global and requires joint efforts from the scientific and industrial communities. He calls for a reduction in the use of plastic in order to avoid its pollution of the environment.

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