- Plastic waste can now be converted directly into usable jet fuel
- A tandem reactor system decomposes plastic at 460 degrees Celsius
- Ruthenium catalyst sites offered much better selectivity than commercial alternatives
Researchers from Nanjing Forestry University and Tsinghua University have demonstrated a new method for converting plastic waste directly into usable jet fuel, with estimated production costs ranging from $1.0 to $1.8 per kilogram.
The work comes as airlines, governments and fuel producers continue to look for alternatives that can reduce dependence on conventional fossil-based jet fuel.
While the technology remains in development, researchers say their approach combines favorable fuel characteristics with economics that look competitive on paper.
New reactor design turns plastic waste into aviation fuel
The study, published in nature energyshows a tandem reactor system that uses hydropyrolysis and hydrogenolysis and can convert plastic waste into jet fuel-type hydrocarbons.
The researchers note that the plastic material first enters a reactor operating at 460 °C, where it decomposes into smaller molecular compounds.
Those intermediate products then pass to a second stage operating at 160°C, where a specially designed catalyst converts them into cycloalkane-rich aviation fuel suitable for further evaluation.
Professors Yadong Li and Dingsheng Wang explained that controlling the mixing of the final product had long remained a challenge in plastic conversion research.
“The problem that was holding us back was selectivity,” they said, noting that conventional approaches often produce broad, difficult-to-control distributions of chemicals.
The team focused on atomically dispersed ruthenium, or Ru, sites supported on cobalt aluminum oxide materials.
After evaluating multiple catalyst configurations, they found that the isolated Ru sites offered significantly different reaction behavior compared to conventional alternatives.
They reported that the catalyst achieved more than 100 times higher hydrogenation yield than a commercial Ru/C catalyst during a key processing step.
Statements about economics and sustainability attract attention
The study comes amid continued efforts to expand sustainable aviation fuel production as airlines face pressure to reduce emissions.
Aviation remains one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize because aircraft require energy-dense liquid fuels that can operate under demanding flight conditions.
The group also reported the successful preparation and testing of gram-scale catalysts, while stating that both catalyst manufacturing and hydrogenation processes appear capable of scaling further.
The researchers said the resulting fuel demonstrated attractive performance characteristics while offering potentially favorable economics.
“A techno-economic analysis places the minimum competitive selling price between $1.0 and $1.8 per kilogram,” Li and Wang said, describing the estimate as competitive.
For comparison, conventional fossil-based jet fuel currently costs between $1.00 and $1.30 per kilogram, although prices change depending on global oil markets and refinery conditions.
Given the volatility linked to global oil markets, the conflict in Iran and tensions in other oil-producing regions, a competitively priced alternative is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Future work will focus on the production of kilogram-scale catalysts and continuous feed systems aimed at improving operational efficiency.
Via Techxplore
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