June 1, 2025
Julian Brown recently went viral after posting a video that showcased his work in the still nascent field of microwave pyrolysis.
Julian Brown, a 21-year-old Atlanta native recently went viral after posting a video to his social media accounts that showcased his work in the still nascent field of microwave pyrolysis, which as the name suggests, involves using extreme heat to transform plastic, which is made of petroleum, back into its basic building blocks, making it a usable fuel source.
Brown, who began working on prototypes utilizing pyrolysis in high school, credits his ability to utilize the technology to his ability to weld, in a 2024 interview with Canvas Rebel, he said that once he discovered that plastic can be turned back into petroleum via a reactor, he set out to build a reactor for that purpose.
“After finding out that plastic is made of crude oil, and can be turned back into fuel with a reactor, I decided to build a reactor, putting my welding experience to use. I saw a problem that needed a solution quickly and desperately, and so I jumped right into taking action and being the change I wanted to see when I knew there was something I could do. I self taught myself everything about this technology and the process, utilizing the age of the internet and information to my advantage. Turning plastic to fuel with reactors has been done before, however I have been working to innovate utilizing microwaves to turn plastic into fuel,” Brown told the outlet.
According to The Root, since that time, Brown has expanded on that work, creating his own company, Naturejab, and proving his concept via fuel testing at ASAP Labs. As he told the outlet, he believes that the process of microwave pyrolysis could be used to turn something that is not biodegradable into a potentially high-value product that ultimately, is a net positive for the environment.
“The very issue we have is the production of plastic,” Brown told The Root. “The reason why recycling hasn’t been done is because it hasn’t been profitable. But now, we are able to make a product of super high value out of something that otherwise is just seen as waste.”
Brown’s not wrong, completely, about why recycling hasn’t been done on a large scale, however, as reporting from Inside Climate News makes clear, it is the resistance of Big Plastic to being held accountable that perpetuates the problem of the overproduction of plastics and the proliferation of “forever chemicals,” often negatively affecting Black and other communities of color.
As they reported in March, the use of pyrolysis is also not without its own drawbacks, although it produces a cleaner burning fuel, it also is a process that adds to the pollutants in the atmosphere unless it is burned at an extremely high temperature.
A Waste Energy Corp. plant in Fayetteville, Arkansas faced criticism for potentially utilizing pyrolysis in a low-income neighborhood predominantly composed of minorities and later announced plans to move into an industry-heavy zone, but researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory discovered in April 2023 that turning plastic into fuel using pyrolysis is both more expensive and more environmentally impactful than fossil fuels or chemicals.
According to Judith Enck, a former regional director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the founder of Beyond Plastics, an environmental group, “The problem with pyrolysis is we should not be producing more fossil fuels. We need to be going in the opposite direction. Using plastic waste as a feedstock for fossil fuels is doubling the damage to the environment because there are very negative environmental impacts from the production, disposal and use of plastics,” Enck told Inside Climate News in 2024.
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