Fuelling your car can be expensive –especially if you need to drive around a lot. Where we get our fuel from – and what that fuel does to the environment – are controversial issues. Many countries intend to reduce their dependence on importing foreign fuels. Equally, people across the world are concerned about the potential environmental impact of using fossil fuels to power their cars. New research by the University of Swansea has discovered a new way that we could potentially power our cars, and clean up our rubbish dumps at the same time.

Reuse, Recycle

Scientists at the University of Swansea have discovered a new way of converting plastic waste into hydrogen fuel which is capable of powering cars. The process involves adding light absorbing material to plastic waste and exposing it to sunlight. While in an alkaline solution, the reaction of light and the plastic creates hydrogen. Scientists can then capture the hydrogen and store it in hydrogen fuel cells.

Saving Time

Currently, recycling plastic is a long and expensive process. Dirt is responsible for a great deal of this. Regular plastic recycling cannot tolerate any dirt on the plastic. As such, recycling centres need to expend time, effort and energy on cleaning the plastic before it is recycled. However, this process does not need the plastic to be clean – in fact, dirty plastic can even produce more hydrogen than clean.

Hydrogen Cars

Hydrogen powered cars are one of the cleanest green vehicles available. However, the process that hydrogen fuel cell producers currently use is expensive. This means that fuelling your car with hydrogen is not currently economical compared to petrol or diesel. If the Swansea process becomes common, then it could make hydrogen powered cars much more popular. It may be several years before such a process could happen on an industrial level. However, it still raises the possibility of hydrogen cars replacing fossil fuel cars in the near future.

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