Upcycling of plastic wastes for hydrogen production: Advances and perspectives

The abundant plastic wastes become an imperative global issue, and how to handle these organic wastes gains growing scientific and industrial interest. Recently, converting plastic wastes into hydrogen fuel has been investigated, and the “waste-to-value” practice accelerates the circular economy. To accelerate the development of plastic-to-hydrogen conversion, in this review, recent advances in plastic-to-hydrogen conversion via thermochemical, photocatalytic, and electrocatalytic routes are analyzed. All of the thermo-, photo-, and electrochemical processes can transform different plastic wastes into hydrogen, and the hydrogen production efficiency depends heavily on the selected techniques, operating parameters, and applied catalysts. The application of rational-designed catalysts can promote the selective production of hydrogen from plastic feedstocks. Further studies on process optimization, cost-effective catalyst design, and mechanism investigation are needed.