Plastic waste being converted into hydrogen fuel (VIDEO)
Caption
Tiny hydrogen bubbles evolving from a piece of PET plastic irradiated with light. PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is the plastic used in most water bottles. Sunlight could be used to convert hazardous medical waste into clean hydrogen fuel, using a new technique being developed by a joint Wales/India team led by Swansea University researchers. The project has just been awarded £47,000 of funding by the Welsh Government. The NHS already spends £700 million a year disposing of medical waste. The COVID pandemic is creating vast amounts of additional waste, such as masks and other protective equipment. The Swansea-led team are developing a novel process called photoreforming. This uses sunlight to simultaneously kill viruses and convert non-recyclable waste into clean hydrogen fuel. The process works by using nanostructured semiconductors to drive the degradation of waste and pathogens with sunlight.
Credit
Dr Moritz Kuehnel, Swansea University
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