With global plastic production exceeding 460 million tonnes annually, the material's intrinsic recalcitrancerecalcitrance/rɪˈkælsɪtrəns/L3顽固抵抗；难以控制或处理的性质the quality of being stubbornly resistant to control, authority, or treatment, especially in a scientific context referring to a material's resistance to chemical change or degradation. to degradation has intensified concerns over its environmental toll, notwithstanding the fact that conventional disposal methods—incineration and landfilling—remain both wasteful and egregiouslyegregiously/ɪˈɡriːdʒəsli/L3极其糟糕地；令人震惊地in a manner that is shockingly bad or flagrant, often used to emphasize the severity of a negative quality or action. polluting. Consequently, a novel chemical technique that converts discarded polyolefins into aviation fuel has emerged as a promising, potentially low-cost solution, offering a dual benefit of waste valorisationvalorisation/ˌvæləraɪˈzeɪʃən/L3价值化；赋予或提升价值（尤指将废弃物转化为有用资源）the process of converting waste materials or by-products into valuable resources or products, often in the context of sustainability and resource efficiency. and energy production.
Researchers from the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fudan University have developed a catalytic hydrogenolysis process that operates under relatively mild conditions, affording tunable product selectivity to steer the reaction toward the C8-C16 hydrocarbon range—the molecular backbone of jet fuel. Polyolefins, which constitute over 60% of plastic waste, possess long, stable carbon chains that resist chemical breakdown; however, the team's catalyst, comprising both cobalt and nickel, overcomes this challenge by fine-tuning the internal electronic state of nickel, thereby boosting its efficiency in activating hydrogen and cleaving carbon-carbon bonds without inducing excessive fragmentation.
The process achieved a liquid yield of 82.3% and a selectivity of 79% toward C8-C16 alkanes, a performance that surpasses earlier approaches reliant on expensive noble metals, which were difficult to industrialise. Indeed, the abundance and cost-effectiveness of nickel and cobalt confer a critical advantage for large-scale deployment, as does the technology's capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% when powered by renewable energy, according to life-cycle assessment. That said, practical hurdles persist: the data remain confined to laboratory-scale experiments, and scaling up to industrial reactors will require substantial engineering efforts, while impurities in the waste feedstock risk poisoning the catalyst and causing rapid deactivation.
Notwithstanding these obstacles, the strategic implications are considerable: if scaled successfully, this method could transform plastic waste from an environmental liability into a valuable feedstock for the aviation sector, which faces mounting pressure to decarbonisedecarbonise/diːˈkɑːrbənaɪz/L3脱碳；减少或消除碳排放to reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide emissions, particularly from industrial processes, energy systems, or transportation, as part of efforts to combat climate change.. Arguably, the integration of such catalytic upcycling with renewable energy infrastructure represents a paradigmparadigm/ˈpærədaɪm/L3范式；典范模式或思维框架a distinct set of concepts, theories, or practices that form the dominant framework or model within a particular field, especially when a significant shift occurs. shift in waste management and green energy conversion, though its commercial viability will hinge on overcoming the aforementioned engineering and feedstock purity challenges.
