Hydrogen from Plastic Waste: 3 Major Corporations from Japan Has a Revolutionary Plan

So, where does the idea of producing hydrogen from plastic waste come from? As plastic waste becomes a problem that governments feel the need to address, corporations are on their track to capitalize on the issue while providing a world with a green alternative in waste recycling. According to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Toyota, JGC Holdings, and Iwatani will prepare a plan for converting plastic waste to clean hydrogen by 2025.

While plastic recycling technology becomes more and more advanced, companies are taking steps to further advance their efforts into solving other issues like energy scarcity via waste transformation.

Previous efforts on producing hydrogen from plastic waste

While the whole industry of generating hydrogen from plastic waste is recently flourishing and new, the technology has been tried before in start-ups in California. However, for a nation that lacks certain energy resources especially in terms of fossil fuels like Japan, this new way of dealing with waste while providing an energy source would be a game-changer. Also since there are already developed hydrogen using fuel cells, the produced hydrogen from plastic waste can also be used for fueling several devices, especially cars.

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What does it promise?

In our previous writings (You can read: Breakthrough in Recycling: How to Distinguish all 12 Types of Plastics) we discussed that a very little portion of waste plastics is actually recycled. Also in the production and recycling processes, vast amounts of water and petroleum are used while generating enormous amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). With this tech, it is claimed that they can convert the non-recycling plastics to hydrogen gas at a low cost, which can be taken from the waste disposal collection fees.

Then also, one can use the produced hydrogen for anything they see fit, though, the main use seems to be going to the hydrogen cell cars. This also looks like one of the reasons why Toyota was one of the main corporations that joined the deal.

Though the whole project will have a demonstration phase until 2025, Japan surely has stepped up its game in sustainability and clean energy with its huge plan to convert national energy technology to a greener state by 2050.

Are there any problems with producing hydrogen from plastic waste?

Some claim that hydrogen is innately dangerous since it is very reactive and can cause a lot of work-related injuries, containment issues, and danger if the energy type goes fully public. However, there seems to be a lot of innovations over that side so, we seem to be eventually getting to a good point in containment technology.

Another question in mind can be that the process of producing hydrogen from plastic waste involves a lot of burning and water vapor addition, which can seem innately unsustainable. As I do not have clear data on the amounts and return ratios, I cannot comment further on that. However, we must be sure that it does not cause more issues than it solves.

Another issue one can point is not about the technology, but rather about the adoption of it. It is not certain that people would be willing to change their normal cars to hydrogen-powered ones while there are electric cars, standard fossil fuel cars. If you want to learn more about problems in hydrogen car adoption, you can watch Donut Media‘s video “Why Hydrogen Cars Flopped” by going to YouTube and watching their content. However, similar things were said about electric cars back in the day, so, hope and good marketing seem to be the answer.

To conclude…

It seems like most nations and corporations are starting to develop their plans for a more sustainable and greener future, which makes most of us feel better about the future of our planet. Especially this new technology of producing hydrogen from plastic waste gives another branch to our advancements. However, our speed and our plans still seem a bit insufficient. Even though most fully appreciate what everyone is doing, there are still many obstacles ahead of us and we need to clear them fast. Ending with a question: “In which years do you believe that we will have a fully sustainable energy economy?”