英国剑桥大学的研究人员在昨天发表于 Joule 的一篇论文中描述了一种方法，利用汽车电池中的废酸来进行塑胶回收并制造洁净氢燃料。实验室测试证实，该反应器可连续运行超过 260 小时而性能不下降，而催化剂在 11 天、约 264 小时内仍保持活性，性能没有任何显著下降。

世界经济论坛表示，全球每年生产约 400 million tons 的塑胶；欧洲环境署表示，历来生产的塑胶中有 9% 被回收，约 12% 被焚化。汽车电池按体积计约有 20% 到 40% 是酸，而这些酸通常在从电池中提取铅以便转售后被丢弃并中和。

这种名为 solar-powered acid photoreforming 的方法，先用酸处理废塑胶并将其分解成乙二醇等物质，然后再由阳光和光催化剂把它转化为氢和乙酸。Kay Kwarteng 表示，这种酸是一种尚未被开发的资源；Erwin Reisner 表示，这种方法并不指望解决全球塑胶问题，但显示了废弃物如何能变成资源。

Researchers from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. described a method in a Joule paper published yesterday that uses spent acid from car batteries for plastic recycling and clean hydrogen fuel. Laboratory tests confirmed that the reactor could run for more than 260 hours without performance decline, and the catalyst remained active over 11 days, or around 264 hours, without any significant decreases in performance.

The World Economic Forum says the world produces about 400 million tons of plastic each year, the European Environment Agency says 9% of plastics ever produced is recycled, and around 12% are incinerated. Car batteries are, by volume, around 20% to 40% acid, and this acid is typically discarded and neutralized after the lead is extracted from the batteries for resale.

The method, called solar-powered acid photoreforming, treats waste plastics with acid and breaks them down into substances like ethylene glycol, then sunlight and a photocatalyst transform this into hydrogen and acetic acid. Kay Kwarteng said the acid is an untapped resource, and Erwin Reisner said the method is not promising to fix the global plastics problem but shows how waste can become a resource.