Plastic waste turned into soap: a revolutionary discovery 

For more than a century and a half, plastic has won the hearts of most of the world's manufacturers because of its ease of use and adaptability to any production situation of human interest.

Plastic is a very versatile material that has been able to completely transform modern society. 

Today, however, the reality is very different.

Plastic: a deadly poison for our planet

Plastic is no longer the miraculous material that everyone wants and adores;

on the contrary, it is the biggest source of environmental pollution of our time.

Approximately 430 million tonnes of plastic are produced worldwide every year, 

and a large and significant proportion of these tonnes are dumped into oceans, rivers and lakes, causing irreparable damage to all natural ecosystems.

Not to mention the fact that only 9% of plastic is actually recycledworldwide!

The majority of this material is dumped in landfills, incinerated or littered. 

All of these actions compound the damage caused by this material.

Today it is all too clear that innovative solutions are needed to tackle this major crisis.

It is in this context that a great chemist from Virginia Tech in the United States, Professor and chemist Guoliang Liu, has his roots.

Chemistry professor Guoliang Liu, together with his team of researchers and students,

has in recent years developed a revolutionary method for converting certain types of plastic into everyday products such as detergents and soaps..

The mechanism behind this revolutionary process is essentially divided into two stages:

1. Thermolysis;
2. Chemical functionalisation.

First phase: thermolysis

The first stage is called 'thermolysis'.

This is a chemical process in which the plastic is heated to very high temperatures, between 340 and 400°C.

This is the perfect temperature to break all the chemical bonds that bind the atoms inside the plastic.

Through this process of thermolysis, Liu and his team were able to separate the plastic into different components, each with its own properties.

The first component turned out to be gas, an element that can be easily captured and then reused as fuel.

The researchers then noticed the presence of minute quantities of solid residues,

materials that are normally produced after thermolysis of plastics because they are inert and non-volatile components.

This means that they have no real ability to turn into gas or oil when heated.

Possible compositions of these solid residues are:

1. plastic additives: such as pigments, metal oxide or silica, which do not degrade with heat and may accumulate as solid residues;
2. residual carbon: some of the carbon present in plastics is not able to evaporate and therefore tends to remain in solid form;
3. impurities and contaminants: present in waste plastics, such as dirt particles or foreign materials.

Finally, the third component found as a result of the thermolysis of plastics is oil,

which is the most important element in the plastics recycling process studied by Liu and co-workers.

Phase two: chemical functionalisation

Once the heating phase of the thermolysis process was complete, the Virginia Tech researchers began the second phase of the study: chemical functionalisation.

This chemical process uses the oil from the previous thermolysis process as a key component,

modifying its molecular structure and turning it into soaps and detergents.

But why are Liu and his colleagues using oil to make these soaps and detergents?

The oil produced by the previous thermolysis process consists of molecules made up of only 14 carbon and hydrogen atoms.

Moreover, the carbon atoms are linearly bonded together, as if they were all in a 'one-dimensional' plane.

At the same time, the soap we normally use to wash our hands or the detergents we use to clean our homes

are made up of many molecules that are physically divided into two parts:

1. a long chain of carbons and hydrogens, which naturally tend to move away from water;
2. an end that binds to the chain of carbons and hydrogens and interacts with water.

The chain of carbons and hydrogens in petroleum is therefore very similar to that in the natural soaps we use every day.

That is why oil has been used to make these potential plastic soaps.

Chemically speaking, they really are very similar!

Adding plastic to the economy

The method proposed by Liu is very promising,

especially considering that he himself has been using plastic soaps in his laboratory and with his collaborators for some time.

This discovery would therefore already be scientifically ready for the production of a new and sustainable reality!

The main obstacle to the industrial application of these products is the economic one.

Liu's research, which has lasted more than five years, has already required several investments, both in terms of time and resources,

and the development of this method on a large scale poses further obstacles.

Integrating equipment for the chemical reactions of the process, i.e. thermolysis and chemical functionalisation,

would require no small amount of financial support from investors and companies.

Furthermore, while the process certainly produces useful materials such as soaps and detergents,

it is important for the project's backers to understand whether these products could actually be competitive in the marketplace when compared to the usual traditional alternatives.

In short, would more than a tonne of plastic turned into soap be a truly sustainable profit?

Finally, another major limitation to date has been the development of advanced technology.

To process tonnes of plastic waste in a continuous system, advanced reactors would have to be designed and chemical processes would have to be standardised.

And even these steps, as explained above, need a lot of economic help to be realised!

Guoliang Liu's research is a brilliant example of scientific innovation applied to one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. 

Converting plastic waste into useful products such as soaps and detergents offers a potentially revolutionary solution to reducing the environmental impact of plastic.

However, the transition from research to industrial reality is still a long way off.

In fact, without adequate funding, this great and sustainable solution to one of the biggest environmental problems of our time

risks remaining locked away in the chemistry labs of Virginia Tech in the United States.