Syngas from waste plastics and water using Joule heating

The development of innovative, sustainable, and atom-economic methods to tackle the escalating problem of plastic pollution is crucial. A Joule-heating system capable of reforming waste plastics and water into syngas has been developed, which can process 2.5 g of waste plastic (equivalent to a whole plastic food bag) and 5.5 g through ten batches of reaction. Control experiments, kinetics, and in-situ experiments reveal that the proton hopping under the electric field is the key step in reforming gaseous hydrocarbons with water into syngas. Due to its high energy efficiency, this wet reforming system can utilize solar energy as the sole energy source, extracting syngas from waste plastic and water without the need for additional transition metal catalysts. Consequently, this approach offers an efficient strategy for storing solar energy in the form of syngas and offers a sustainable solution to the environmental challenges posed by the accumulation of plastic waste.