Green Energy and Environmental Research Projects (2022-01-28)

Abstract

Aquatic plastic trash does not degrade quickly in aquatic environments; thus, itcan persist in the sea, lake, or river surface waters, eventually accumulating inboth well-populated and remote areas of the world’s aquatic environment.Marine animals also consume plastic trash, which seriously affects theecosystem of the aquatic environment, such as water quality and marine foodsafety, and affects the sustainable development of humankind. To address thiscritical problem while meeting the goal of the Global Green Energy Initiatives,we propose an innovative post-collection plastic waste conversion technologysystem solution that effectively converts plastic waste collected from theaquatic environment into bio-oil and syngas using a novel chemical loopingmethod. This technology can be expanded to convert other feedstocks, such asbiomass, coal, and bitumen, into sustainable fossil fuel alternatives. Over 80 percent of the world’s electricity is produced from fossil fuels, whichaccount for 25 percent of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In addition, theincrease in CO2 levels in the atmosphere and ocean water is responsible, inlarge part, for rapid climate change, which is the root cause of much of thecurrent extreme weather phenomena that endanger both the planet and thelives of our future generation. Thus new carbon-capture technologies inmultiple fronts including direct air capture, post-combustion carbon capture,direct ocean capture, and CO2 conversion are needed to address climatechange concerns and meet U.S. greenhouse gas reduction goals.