Researchers from India’s University of Petroleum and Energy Studies suggest that discarded single-use personal protective equipment (PPE) could be turned into biofuel.

According to the research team, the polypropylene in surgical masks and other PPE could potentially be converted into renewable liquid fuels through a process of pyrolysis, wherein chemicals break down plastics at temperatures ranging from 300° C to 400° C without oxygen.

The end result, according to the research team, would reportedly be a clean synthetic fuel with properties similar to those in fuels derived from fossil fuels.

Such a product would serve to simultaneously protect the environment from fast-accumulating PPE waste, which is mounting in step with its increased manufacture due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while also producing a new energy source.

The research appears in the journal Biofuels.