News
The Missing Equations at ExxonMobil’s Advanced Recycling Operation
The petrochemical giant promotes its new Baytown facility near Houston as a model for solving the world’s glut of used plastic. But Exxon Mobil won’t say how much goes into making new plastic—or ends up burned as climate-warming fuel.
By James Bruggers
BAYTOWN, Texas—ExxonMobil’s vision of recycling plastic begins here at its massive petrochemical complex, and in many ways, so does that of the city of Houston and its nearly two-year-old recycling collaboration with the oil industry.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: renewables
State of Play
Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.