Old Christmas trees could be saved from landfill to make renewable fuels

Seven million Christmas trees end up in landfill in the UK each year, releasing an estimated 100,000 tonnes of harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. New research has found a more efficient, simplified process for using pine needles to produce formic acid, for use in hydrogen fuel cells, as a food preservative and in agricultural and industrial manufacturing Pine needles collected after Christmas and processed in this way could be used to replace less sustainable chemicals currently used - Research at the University of Sheffield and the University of Valladolid has found that pine needles from discarded Christmas trees or other sources could be turned into renewable fuels and new products, with the potential to reduce the UK-s carbon footprint. A new paper , published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering journal , found that pine needles could be used to produce renewable fuels and value-added chemicals, such as preservatives used in agriculture, using only water as a solvent. Between six and eight million real Christmas trees are sold every year in the UK, with an estimated seven million making their way to landfill at the end of the festive period. Not only is this costly, but once in landfill, each tree will release 16 kg of greenhouse gases as they decompose, producing methane gas, which is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2). Earlier University research from 2018 found that useful products could be made from the chemicals extracted from pine needles when processed.