A study has revealed that plastic from PPE has the potential to be converted into biofuel.

As of April 2020, over a billion items of PPE have been delivered to NHS staff in the UK. The knock-on effect of this is that the waste PPE is being disposed of at an increasingly high rate, which poses a serious threat to the environment. 

However, researchers from The University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) in India have claimed that disposable PPE can be converted into biocrude, which is both a renewable and synthetic liquid fuel. 

They focussed on how the polypropylene (plastic) is damaging the environment and concluded that the PPE waste should be transformed into biocrude using pyrolysis. This is a process where plastic is broken down without oxygen at temperatures which can reach up to 400 degrees centigrade.

The conversion into biocrude “will not just prevent the severe after-effects to humankind and the environment but also produce a source of energy,” according to lead author Dr. Sapna Jain. 

“We have to prepare ourselves to meet the challenges which are forcefully imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, so as to maintain sustainability.”