AudioPod

About this episode

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, billions of plastic facemasks have been used and disposed of, with the majority destined for landfill. Professor Andrew R. Barron and his team at the Energy Safety Research Institute in Swansea, Wales, have developed an innovative method for repurposing these used facemasks. By transforming them into a powdered material that acts as a reducing agent, Professor Barron’s team aim to make the steel-making process more energy-efficient and sustainable.

Original Article Reference

This SciPod is a summary of the paper ‘Facemasks and ferrous metallurgy: improving gasification reactivity of low-volatile coals using waste COVID-19 facemasks for ironmaking application’, in Scientific Reports. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06691-w

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseCreative Commons License

What does this mean?

Share: You can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

Adapt: You can change, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

Credit: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.

Increase the impact of your research!

More episodes

Harsanti Morley – Robert Morley | Reading Ancient Pollen to Reconstruct a Lost World in Java

More than a million years ago, the island of Java looked very different from the busy, densely populated place we know...

Karl Fleming | Balancing Safety: Rethinking Prevention and Mitigation in a Complex World

In the world of nuclear energy, safety is not a single switch that can be turned on or off. It is a layered, evolving...

Prof. Alex Vitkin | Seeing the Invisible: How Polarized Light Contributes to Our Understanding and Detection of Cancer

Light is something we encounter every day, so familiar that it rarely inspires a second thought. Yet beneath its...

Dr. Cini Bhanu | When Standing Up Knocks You Down: Why Postural Hypotension Goes Unnoticed

Imagine standing up from a chair and feeling a sudden wave of dizziness, as though the floor beneath you has shifted....

Dr. Samantha Zwicker | The Secret Life of the Margay in Peru’s Rainforest

Deep in the Amazon rainforest of southeastern Peru, one of the world’s most elusive wild cats slips silently...

Dr. Gebrekrstos Negash Gebru | On the Front Lines of a Pandemic: Sierra Leone’s Field Epidemiology Training Program Success Story

In early 2020, as headlines around the world warned of a fast-spreading new virus, Sierra Leone watched with a mixture...