Converting waste plastic bottles into jet fuel

Plastic waste from drinks bottles and food packaging can be transformed in a new process into cyclic and aromatic hydrocarbons, which can then be used as important components of diesel and jet fuel.

A team led by Hao Tang and Ning Li from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China, has come up with a process to convert one of the most common plastics, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), into a mixture of C₇ and C₈ cycloalkanes and aromatics, suitable to be blended into jet fuels or diesel. ‘A lot of people are worrying about plastic waste. Why not convert it to something more useful, for example gasoline and bio-jet fuel?’ says Li.