Using light to transform plastic into electricity

SCIENTISTS said yesterday they have come up with an environmentally friendly method that uses artificial sunlight to transform plastic into powergenerating chemicals, as countries worldwide battle to reduce waste.

Huge quantities of plastic have piled up on land and been dumped in the sea across the world, with Asian nations, in particular, facing criticism for failing to tackle the problem.

Researchers in Singapore say they have converted plastic into “formic acid,” which can be used in power plants to generate electricity, by using a catalyst which neither damages the environment nor costs a lot of money.

In lab experiments, researchers from the city’s Nanyang Technological University mixed plastic with chemicals to form a solution, which could then be broken down by artificial sunlight.

The plastic was broken down in six days and scientists hope the process can be carried out in the future under real sunlight.

“We are able to turn plastics, which are of course polluting the oceans, into useful chemicals,” said Soo Han Sen, who led the two-year research project.

“We’re hoping to turn this into a fully renewable process that’s carbon neutral.”

Other methods of recycling plastic typically melting it using fossil fuels. So far only tiny amounts have been converted into formic acid and Soo conceded there are challenges to replicating the process on a bigger scale.

(AFP)