Scientist Finds That Plastic Bottles Can Be Used To Make Steel

[matcom]

<snip>

A SYDNEY scientist's passion for recycling has fuelled her ground-breaking discovery that plastic bottles can be used to make steel.

Professor Veena Sahajwalla, from the University of NSW, has won a prestigious Australian Museum Eureka Prize for her discovery.
Using a concoction of scrap parts from washing machines, cars and industrial waste, heated with plastic commonly found in laundry bottles, Professor Sahajwalla created high-quality industrial steel.

Her discovery has won international acclaim and companies are lining up to use the technology, which produces fewer emissions and could be used to make 40 per cent of the world's steel.

"I was motivated because I do not waste anything. I have been to landfill sites and I see the huge amount of waste and it breaks my heart," Professor Sahajwalla said.

Plastic is 85 per cent carbon and 15 per cent hydrogen, making it an ideal replacement for fossil fuels such as coal.

Professor Sahajwalla was among 24 winners announced on Tuesday night and received a grant of $10,000.
The Eureka awards are presented each year for pioneering scientific work.

A Sydney astrophysicist from the Department of Physics at Sydney University, who captured images of stars, was also a winner.

Judges said Dr Peter Tuthill's clear shots of baby stars and strange spiral pinwheels in the night sky were the best ever taken.

By using a metal plate dotted with holes over the eye of a telescope to cut out light, Dr Tuthill captured images of stars said to be so clear it is the equivalent of being able to see a five cent coin from 100km away.

Australian Museum director Frank Howarth said the Eureka prize was an honour.

"I believe they are the most prestigious science awards and science teaching awards in Australia," he said.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16221060-13762,00.html

[mom cat]

1. Burning plactic stinks really bad...and the CO2 production is the same as

burning any other carbon source. Burning plastic is not recycling or reusing,,,it is destruction pure and simple, with serious environmental consequences. The "steel" is not from "plastic" but fron the scrap metal that does need to be recycled!