Team makes sustainable aviation fuel additive from recycled polystyrene

Photo caption: Illinois Sustainable Technology Center research scientist Hong Lu and his colleagues developed a method for converting waste polystyrene into a sustainable jet fuel additive, ethylbenzene. […] Photo credit: Fred Zwicky. Article by Diana Yates. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: News Bureau – January 13, 2025. Research article: ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study overcomes a key challenge to switching commercial aircraft in the U.S. from their near-total reliance on fossil fuels to more sustainable aviation fuels. The study details a cost-effective method for producing ethylbenzene — an additive that improves the functional characteristics of sustainable aviation fuels — from polystyrene, a hard plastic used in many consumer goods. […]

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