Researchers have developed a new chemical process that converts mixed plastic waste into high-purity hydrogen while preventing most of the carbon from being released into the atmosphere. The technique, developed by scientists from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and Ewha Womans University in South Korea, processes common plastics including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) without requiring them to be separated beforehand. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates that the method can produce hydrogen with a purity exceeding 90%.
