Plastic bags to gasoline: Molten salts crack polyethylene into real f… | HappeningNow.news
Published Date: July 08, 2026

Science · 4 views

Plastic bags to gasoline: Molten salts crack polyethylene into real fuels

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a method to convert a commonly discarded hydrocarbon po…

Source phys.org AI Summary Updated April 10, 2026
Story intelligence Beta
Freshness Stale Updated April 10, 2026
Confidence Limited Single-outlet story
Coverage Single outlet
Views 4 Community interest
Read time 1 min ~69 words

AI Summary

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a method to convert a commonly discarded hydrocarbon polymer into gasoline- and diesel-like fuels. The team has applied for a patent for the discovery, which treats polyethylene—the stuff of white cutting boards and shopping bags—with aluminum chloride-containing molten salts that serve as both solvent and catalyst. The results are published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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