Category: Innovation

Japan is pioneering a new approach to plastic recycling that could change the game.

Nearly 400 million tons of plastic is produced annually, and about half designed for single use. Only about 25 percent of global plastic waste is recycled, while most ends up in landfills or oceans, posing severe threats to marine ecosystems and human health.

Despite its reputation for cleanliness, Japan generates almost 40 kg of single-use plastic waste per person annually. This challenge has driven Japanese innovators to seek novel solutions.

The Science Behind the Solution
Environment Energy, a Japanese company, plans to launch a commercial plant in 2025 using their innovative HICOP (High-efficiency Oil Production) method. This process converts plastic waste into crude oil, potentially processing 20,000 tons of plastic annually.

The HICOP process uses catalytic cracking, a method from petroleum refining, to break down plastic molecules at temperatures up to 450°C. This approach is safer than pyrolysis, yielding high-quality oil composed of 50 percent gasoline and 50 percent diesel. The system can process about 120 tons of waste per month with minimal downtime, and the resultant oil can be used for fuel, home heating, or as raw material for new plastic production.

HICOP represents a significant advancement in chemical recycling, breaking plastic into its constituent parts to allow for higher-quality end products. The process uses catalysts to convert plastic into hydrocarbon gases, which are then concentrated into crude oil. This method is versatile, handling mixed plastic waste and PVC with low contamination rates.

The Road Ahead
Innovations like HICOP offer hope for reducing the environmental impact of plastic consumption by converting waste into usable fuel or raw materials. However, experts caution that this technology is not a complete solution. Reducing plastic use and improving existing recycling methods are also essential.

As Environment Energy prepares to bring its first commercial plant online in 2025, the success of this venture could inspire global shifts in plastic waste management. Japan’s plastic-to-oil technology is a crucial piece of data that could have a massive effect.

“Our core purpose is to create a circular economy where waste becomes the source of new materials,” explained Environment Energy CEO Suji Noda.

A 52-year-old man with Parkinson’s disease has experienced a significant transformation after starting a new drug treatment. Damian Gath was diagnosed ten years ago with a condition that causes involuntary shaking.

Gath, who was the head of operations at a communications firm, noticed symptoms when he began losing the use of his fingers and dropping objects. After seeing a neurologist, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a disease he had little knowledge of.

Gath tried every available oral medication to manage the disease’s effects, but each one brought severe side effects, including hallucinations, paranoia, depression, and anxiety.

In June, following the drug’s approval by England’s National Health System (NHS), Gath became one of the first patients in the country to receive Produodopa. This treatment, delivered through a small pump under the skin, provides a more gradual release of medication, offering better symptom management. Gath described the treatment as revolutionary.

A video shared by SWNS shows the remarkable change in Gath’s condition after just one week. He could make a cup of coffee with ease, a task that was previously challenging due to spastic upper body movements. Gath reported that he now experiences less pain and can sleep well at night, unlike before when his symptoms would return after his medication wore off.

Dr. Nishantha Silva from Sherwood Forest Hospital, where Gath was treated, stated that the successful use of Produodopa marks a new era in managing advanced Parkinson’s disease. The NHS plans to extend the therapy to other patients soon.

The Cloudboom Strike LS shoes are designed for speed and acceleration, offering a lightweight construction that could make the difference between winning and losing a gold medal. They feature a carbon fiber sole with no heel cap or toe spring, and their upper is made from LightSpray, a thermoplastic that sets in just three minutes. On’s co-CEO, Marc Maurer, sees LightSpray as a potential step towards a more sustainable and circular future.

Hellen Obiri, who joined On in January 2022 after leaving Nike, wore a prototype of the LightSpray shoe when she clinched her second Boston Marathon victory in April. The concept was inspired by Johannes Voelchert, who was influenced by a child’s Halloween glue gun toy used for spraying spider webs.

Australian middle-distance runner Olli Hoare and Irish 1,500-meter runner Luke McCann have previously worn the Cloudboom Strike, and On hopes they’ll choose these new shoes for their upcoming races.

Available to the public for $300, the Cloudboom shoes are not just for elite athletes. With spray-on dresses already seen on Milan runways and spray-on sneakers gaining popularity, it’s exciting to imagine what other products might soon be available in spray-on formats—perhaps even spray-on furniture?

A team from MIT has developed a chemical reaction that could allow ships and submarines to generate zero-emissions hydrogen power using aluminum pellets and seawater.

By making a few adjustments, the researchers managed to produce a significant amount of hydrogen gas, a potential alternative to fossil fuels for heavy machinery like construction equipment, trains, and planes. One of the key modifications involved adding coffee grounds, which made the process more sustainable by using aluminum from old soda cans. Hydrogen is being tested in various applications as it has zero carbon emissions, with water as the only byproduct.

However, concerns exist about the safety of transporting large quantities of hydrogen gas due to its volatile nature. Aly Kombargi, a Ph.D. student in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and his team proposed using seawater as the hydrogen source and aluminum pellets as the onboard fuel, similar to how coal was once used in steamships.

“This is particularly useful for maritime applications like boats or underwater vehicles, as seawater is readily available,” said Kombargi, the lead author of the paper detailing the experiment.

The reaction involves dropping pure aluminum into water, which generates hydrogen gas. To reduce costs, aluminum soda cans can be used, but they must be pretreated with a rare alloy called gallium indium. This is necessary because the non-pure aluminum in soda cans forms a protective oxide layer that prevents the reaction. The alloy can be recovered if protected by a barrier of ions, which seawater naturally provides.

Initially, the process took about 2 hours, but by experimenting with different substances, the team discovered that coffee grounds, specifically the imidazole found in caffeine, reduced the reaction time to just 5 minutes.

With this approach, the researchers estimate that 1 gram of pre-treated aluminum pellets can generate 1.3 liters of hydrogen in just 5 minutes. According to MIT, the team plans to test the system in marine and underwater vehicles, and they have calculated that a reactor holding about 40 pounds of aluminum pellets could power a small underwater glider for approximately 30 days using seawater to generate hydrogen to power a motor.

Humans are pretty smart, and we come up with a lot of great ideas. Sadly, sometimes those great ideas are forgotten even thought they could still be very useful.

Often, past technologies are replaced by better technologies. However, the original solutions can address issues with the newer techs. And using them in conjunction can often give you the best of both worlds.

So here is this fascinating video explaining why you should consider using this “obsolete” tech on your home.