District.

3 researchers in purdue's fuel laboratory of renewable energy are working to answer the world's plastic waste problem.

New 18's balint szalavari visited the lab to see how a new process will be able to help.

3bresearchers at purdue university are testing a new process that could convert polyolefin, a form of plastic, into new products.wang: "by doing this, we hope to motivate industry and the public to help to reduce the plastic waste accumulation."

It involves supercritical water.this is heated water in a physical state between a liquid and gas.it acts as a solvent on harmful waste such as plastic.standup: "only 10 percent of plastics were recycled between 1960 and 2015.

The world economic forum predicts there will be more plastic waste in the ocean than fish by the year 2050."

Wang is partnering with engineering technology professor gozdem kilaz to create a solution.one of the products that can be obtained from breaking down plastics is fuel.kilaz: "our job in this project is to be able to go and see if the properties of these fuel cuts are acceptable for approving these fuels to be deployed in the transportation vehicles."

The group estimates creating these greener fuels can meet four percent of the annual demand for diesel or gasoline fuels while reducing production costs.kilaz: "when we're producing the fuels from sustainable sources, the feedstock costs are about 30 to 35 percent of the whole cost of the process."

The pair has already started small scale testing.and they believe the research would make a positive impact on a larger scale.kilaz: "if we can manage to be able to utilize what is actually toxic to the environment and not have to spend as many, it will be a wonderful win-win situation."

Reporting from purdue, balint szalavari, news 18.

3 ?the conversion process can also be used to create waxes and polymers(pahl-em-er) ?the researchers hope to begin larger scale