This looks like a 'sponsored' 'research' by plastic producing companies, like how tobacco companies / wine producers used to push their products with such 'scientific research' and 'doctor's recommendations'.
"Look we don't need to cut down on our plastic production / usage. We can use microbes to convert them to 'painkillers'"
I will believe when I see some real-world results.
PaulHoule•3h ago
Does everything have to be political these days? My RSS reader shows me a lot of articles about mRNA technology but I never post them to HN because it brings out all the kooks.
Three trends in chemical recycling of plastics are: (i) disorganized processes based on pyrolysis that break plastics down to BTEX chemicals [1] and fuels, (ii) organized processes that break plastics down to mostly pure monomers (sometimes with pyrolysis, often with chemicals or enzymes under mild conbdition) and (iii) upcycling processes.
(i) and (ii) produces products that are 50 cents a pound so the juice is often not worth the squeeze, particularly when landfilling costs well under 5 cents per pound.
With (iii) you could make chemicals that are a lot more valuable but these aren't scalable answers to plastic waste for one reason: there is just so much paracetamol people can take compared to how much plastic waste there is.
sherdil2022•3h ago
"Look we don't need to cut down on our plastic production / usage. We can use microbes to convert them to 'painkillers'"
I will believe when I see some real-world results.
PaulHoule•3h ago
Three trends in chemical recycling of plastics are: (i) disorganized processes based on pyrolysis that break plastics down to BTEX chemicals [1] and fuels, (ii) organized processes that break plastics down to mostly pure monomers (sometimes with pyrolysis, often with chemicals or enzymes under mild conbdition) and (iii) upcycling processes.
(i) and (ii) produces products that are 50 cents a pound so the juice is often not worth the squeeze, particularly when landfilling costs well under 5 cents per pound.
With (iii) you could make chemicals that are a lot more valuable but these aren't scalable answers to plastic waste for one reason: there is just so much paracetamol people can take compared to how much plastic waste there is.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTX_(chemistry) -- so far as Exxon-Mobil sees it, this is the raw stuff that they sell for people to make plastics