The recent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, previously known as 2019-nCoV) outbreak has engulfed an unprepared world amidst a festive season. The zoonotic SARS-CoV-2, believed to have originated from infected bats, is the seventh member of enveloped RNA coronavirus. Specifically, the overall genome sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 is 96.2% identical to that of bat coronavirus termed BatCoV RaTG13. Although the current mortality rate of 2% is significantly lower than that of SARS (9.6%) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)

Catalytic pyrolysis offers a sustainable route to convert plastic wastes into fuel. We investigated the catalytic performance of coal ash (fly and bottom ash) at blending ratio of 5 wt%, and 15 wt% during pyrolysis of linear lowdensity polyethylene (LLDPE). The influence on activation energy and oil was characterized via thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Results have shown that 15 wt% bottom ash exhibited higher catalytic activity. The activation energy estimated by Coats-Redfern method decreased from 458.7 kJ•mol  1 to 437.8 kJ•mol  1 , while the alicyclic hydrocarbon yield increased from 5.97% to 32.09%. This implies that CaO, which is abundant in bottom ash, could promote the conversion of LLDPE. Furthermore, a cradle-to-factory gate life cycle assessment was performed to investigate three scenarios (non-catalytic pyrolysis, 15 wt% fly ash, and 15 wt% bottom ash) of LLDPE conversion strategies via a normalization and weighting approach. It was found that LLDPE pyrolysis with 15 wt% bottom ash also showed the lowest normalized score of 2.83, implying the lowest environmental impact. This work has demonstrated that the recycling of coal ash, particularly bottom ash, as catalysts for LLDPE pyrolysis is effective.