TECH

From waste to strategic resource: the transformation of plastic that could revolutionize batteries

Chinese scientists have developed an innovative method to transform plastic waste into high-performance carbon materials. The breakthrough could solve two urgent problems: reducing global pollution and creating more powerful, stable, and durable batteries. The discovery paves the way for a new energy and environmental era.

Plastic, one of the most widely used materials of the 20th century, has also become one of the biggest environmental challenges of the 21st century. Billions of tons are produced each year, and much of it ends up in landfills or the oceans. Now, a group of Chinese researchers has found a surprising solution: converting this waste into an essential resource for the future of batteries.

The study, published in the journal Sustainable Carbon Materials, was conducted by scientists from Shenyang Agricultural University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They demonstrated that plastics can be transformed into advanced carbon materials, such as graphene, nanotubes, and porous carbon—fundamental components for lithium batteries, supercapacitors, and hydrogen fuel cells.

These materials, which until now have been expensive and difficult to produce, are responsible for high electrical conductivity and structural stability. The novelty lies in obtaining them from common plastic waste, converting an environmental problem into a strategic resource.

The method combines cutting-edge technologies. The most promising is instantaneous Joule heating, capable of generating graphene in milliseconds with low energy consumption. The technique uses less than 0.1 kWh for each kilogram of material processed.

Other complementary processes include catalytic pyrolysis, which decomposes plastic polymers at high temperatures without oxygen, and one-step synthesis, which rearranges carbon atoms into highly conductive structures. The result is a porous carbon with a large internal surface area, capable of storing more lithium ions and increasing the capacity and charging speed of batteries.

The discovery not only increases energy efficiency but also offers a sustainable alternative to plastic waste. According to researcher Gaixiu Yang, from the Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, the goal is to "close the loop": transforming plastic into an energy and environmentally useful resource.

Tests indicate that the carbon obtained can achieve storage capacities close to the theoretical limit of selenium batteries, maintaining stable performance for hundreds of cycles. In addition, the material can also be applied to CO₂ capture and the filtering of heavy metals in water.

Towards a circular carbon economy...Professor Yan Chen, from South China University of Technology, considers the advance a decisive step towards a circular carbon economy, a model in which waste is not discarded, but reintegrated into new value chains.

In the context of the global energy transition, batteries with recycled carbon can be cheaper, more durable and sustainable. Unlike traditional recycling, which degrades materials, this technique creates a superior product — technologically advanced functional carbon, indispensable for electronics and energy storage.

More than recycling: an energy revolution...For researchers, the goal is clear: to transform one of the biggest environmental problems of today into an energy solution for the future. If scaled up to an industrial level, the technology could drastically reduce the impact of plastic on the planet and extend the lifespan of batteries that power everything from smartphones to electric cars.

Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)...Despite millions of Americans depositing their plastic waste into recycling bins, much of that waste, including flexible films, multilayer materials, and colored plastics, cannot be recycled cost-effectively. In fact, only 9% of plastics in the U.S. are actually re-used and are typically “low-value,” meaning the high costs of recycling do not necessarily yield good returns.

Thanks to a new process from the University of Wisconsin (UW) – Madison, chemical engineers can now transform plastic waste into “high-value” chemicals, increasing the economic incentives for plastic recycling and creating novel pathways to recycle new types of plastics. In research published in Science, investigators led by Dr. George W. Huber, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at UW-Madison and Director of the Center for the Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics (CUWP), have developed a new plastics recycling method based on two chemical processes: pyrolysis and hydroformylation.

“Currently, there are limited options for cost-effective plastic waste recycling, and most generate a product with substantially lower value and quality than a virgin plastic,” says Dr. Gayle Bentley, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) Technology Manager for CUWP. “This exciting new technology paves the way for a circular plastics economy.”

Researchers estimate these processes will not only revolutionize plastics recycling, but could also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the conventional production of these industrial chemicals by roughly 60 percent. “There are so many different products and so many routes we can pursue with this platform technology,” says Huber. “There’s a huge market for the products we’re making. I think it really could change the plastic recycling industry.”

mundophone