Catalytic Reforming of PET Plastic Waste for Efficient Hydrogen Production Using Bifunctional Ru Catalyst

Emerging strategies for enacting various transformations from plastic waste may enable us to dispose of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste sustainably. Realizing the demand for a practical approach to accelerate waste‐to‐fuel conversion in the circular economy, we unveil an efficient catalytic strategy for upcycling PET plastic waste to hydrogen utilizing a well‐defined homogeneous NNN‐Ru‐based bifunctional catalyst. This developed protocol is adequate for a high hydrogen yield of up to 83% (21.65 mmol/gPET) from plastic PET waste, allowing the recovery of the fossil fuel‐based terephthalic acid. The practical utility of this emerging catalytic strategy was expanded for various real‐world post‐consumer plastic wastes, resulting in a successful waste‐to‐fuel transformation and offering a superior activity (TON up to 31,347) even with 0.01 mol% of Ru‐catalyst loading.