Polystyrene Foam can be Gasoline With Some Help

Hackaday reports on a creator called Lowered Expectations who recently demonstrated converting polystyrene foam into gasoline through pyrolysis and distillation. The process dissolves the foam in recovered stale gasoline to create a slurry, which is heated in a distillation flask; the distillates are then stabilized and treated to prevent auto-polymerization of styrene monomers. The resulting fuel actually did run a gasoline generator, demonstrating the concept works—but the engine suffered severe buildup of a gummy residue during testing. More troublingly, because the fuel contains styrene monomers, which are toxic when inhaled, it poses serious health risks from both the fuel itself and exhaust vapors. While polystyrene can technically be converted to gasoline, the engine damage and toxicity concerns make it impractical, and it's definitely not something to attempt at home.

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