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Research scientist Hong Lu’s team at the Illinois Sustainable
Technology Center produced ethylbenzene, a key SAF additive,
from recycled polystyrene.
The ISTC is division of the Prairie Research Institute at the
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Lu said sourcing ethylbenzene from plastic waste solves two
problems.
“One, we solve the waste plastic issue, because polystyrene
almost 100% goes to landfills. On the other hand, we enhance the
performance of the only commercially-available SAF,” Lu told The
Center Square.
Lu said the polystyrene in #6 plastic items can be found in many
household products, such as drinking cups. Once the polystyrene
is depolymerized to become styrene, Lu said it can be upgraded
to ethylbenzene as a good promoter for SAF.
Currently, Lu said, the only commercially-available SAF does not
satisfy the jet fuel requirement and must be blended with fuel
which is fossil-fuel-based, with SAF comprising 20-30% of the
mix.
Now, Lu said, the amount of SAF can be greatly enhanced.
“We can now maybe use 40%, 50% of SAF with fossil fuel-based jet
fuels,” Lu said.
Lu said it appears that ethylbenzene sourced from waste plastic
is cost effective.
“Based on our preliminary analysis, it’s a little bit cheaper
than the ethylbenzene produced from traditional fossil fuels,”
Lu said.
He added that much work remained for the blend to be fully
commercialized.
Lu said the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal
agencies set a goal of 3 billion gallons of
domestically-produced SAF per year by 2030. The government is
aiming SAF to account for 100% of projected aviation jet fuel
use, or 35 billion gallons per year, by 2050.
Funding for the work at the ISTC was provided by federal
taxpayers through the U.S. Department of Energy. |
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