TrashHere's the problem: plastic. As time goes on, the dependence of modern society on plastics continues to rise. And boy, does it show. Landfills are packed with the remnants of consumer culture, and they're slowly leaking out. Oceans and forests are collecting this trash, allowing it to build up to toxic levels in food chains. Animals are dying, plant life is fading, and humans are letting it happen. It's just as bad as it sounds. Permanent damage is being done to large swathes of the Earth's natural environment, and large-scale human intervention is disappointingly low. However, there is a way to change it.
GoldThat's right, we get oil: Black Gold, Texas Tea. As a sample rate, every kilogram of plastic put through an extremely efficient pyrolytic process will yield a liter of crude fuel. Its properties tend to place the majority of its contents closer to diesel, but gasoline can be extracted in smaller amounts through fractional distillation (the already extant form of mass fuel production). It's the perfect solution to be easily implemented into society, just as soon as it's profitable.
|
MagicThanks to environmental scientists and some poor chemists somewhere, an almost constant push has been made toward making plastic degradable. Luckily, their work has payed off. In a process called pyrolysis, a catalyst and heat activated reaction can break down plastic into usable fuel, with only minimal waste products being created.
|
This could be the future
Picture a world where all plastic is as valuable as crude oil. Landfills become drill sites, and recycling bins become jerrycans. Environmental cleanup is now propelled by the main motivator of the world: money. All of this could come from cheap, efficient, and large-scale pyrolytic degradation of plastic. Sounds great, doesn't it?