Plastic is playing an important role in helping us reduce the environmental footprint of energy production by aiding renewable energy sources. Here are three ways that plastics may help with renewable energy now and in the future.
Wind Turbines
A wind turbine operates similarly to a domestic fan, but in reverse: instead of using power to generate wind, it utilizes wind to generate electricity. To generate power, the wind moves the turbine blades around a rotor, which turns a generator. Lighter weight turbine blades can normally spin faster, hence specialists have constantly experimented with new materials to lighten the blades.
This is where plastics come into play. The majority of wind turbine manufacturers currently employ lightweight plastic composites to construct robust, aerodynamic blades. These materials are constantly improving, resulting in harder and lighter blades. Researchers are even considering covering the turbines in a material made to simulate owl feathers, which might allow wind turbine speed and megawatt output to grow without adding unwanted noise.
Solar Cells
These have been used to create renewable energy for decades, but polymers have traditionally played a secondary role. Solar panels, for example, frequently employ different polymers to cover or link some of the panel’s components.
According to some experts, plastic-based solar cells may have a bright future. Researchers are working on a new generation of solar cells in which polymers not only protect the technology but also function as a photovoltaic materials. While there have been numerous advancements in recent years, fresh findings may lead to substantial advancements in this technology. Researchers, for example, have discovered that they can modify the molecules in some polymers to create organized routes, or “nanowires,” down which electrical charges may pass more effectively.
These kinds of advancements might allow plastics’ adaptability to offer up new options for solar technology. Because the plastics used in solar cells are flexible, lightweight, and incredibly thin. Plastic solar cells might theoretically be printed onto walls, windows, and several other surfaces, including curved ones.
Additionally, plastic solar cells are predicted to become less costly, thereby making renewable energy affordable to many more individuals, houses, and companies.
Energy Recovery
We’ve all heard that recycling converts our everyday plastics into materials for producing new goods. Give these precious resources a second chance but, what happens to the plastics that aren’t recycled? They have the potential to become a source of energy more than ever before.
The new technology can breakdown polymers at the molecular level and recuperate these energy sources for usage in diverse fuels.
How does it function? After arriving at a plastics-to-fuel factory, non-recycled plastics are heated in an oxygen-free atmosphere. Which causes them to melt into a liquid and subsequently evaporate into gases, a process known as pyrolysis. These gases are cooled and condensed to produce a wide range of valuable products. Including synthetic crude oil, synthetic diesel fuel, kerosene, and others.
That implies that instead of ending up in a landfill, today’s plastic may be able to supply power to houses and automobiles.