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Chemistry

Chemical waste can be recycled into a range of drugs and fertilisers

Researchers used software to identify drugs and fertilisers that can be made from 189 byproducts of large-scale industrial processes

By Matthew Sparkes

27 April 2022

ANKARA, TURKEY - DECEMBER 13: Chemical and hazardous wastes collected through hospitals and collection - sorting plants are being destructed at Recovery and Disposal Facility in Kahramankazan district of Ankara, Turkey on December 13, 2021. (Photo by Berke Bayur/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Workers at a chemical waste disposal facility in Ankara, Turkey

Berke Bayur/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Software has identified more than 300 ways in which widely available chemical waste with no obvious use can be combined and converted into a range of drugs and fertilisers. The researchers behind the tool believe it will optimise the chemical industry and allow recycling of by-products that would otherwise need to be stored.

Bartosz Grzybowski at US software and chemistry company Allchemy and his colleagues used their software, also known as Allchemy, to look for useful products from 189 small …

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