It’s a summer afternoon in suburban Georgia, and the solar panels’ sharp gleam cuts through the mist over Julian Brown’s front lawn. Under their silent watch, a cube-shaped metal reactor hums the volume of a household dishwasher but much hotter inside as shredded plastic disappears into dark interior. Minutes later, a glass jar begins to fill with a honey-colored liquid. Brown, known online as NatureJab, grins into his phone camera:
“That’s fuel, straight from trash.”
Just days later, on July 9, 2025, Brown’s social media went dark. His last Instagram story was a shaky, cryptic video:
“I’m under attack.”
Rumors of corporate sabotage and “Big Oil” intimidation flooded TikTok and X. His mother later assured followers he was safe, but the questions and fascination only grew.
Brown is 21 years old, based in metro Atlanta, and has amassed over 1.8 million Instagram followers and 1.3 million on TikTok by documenting his homemade “Plastoline” reactors. His goal, he says, is simple:
“We can’t solve the plastic problem if all we do is bury it or ship it away. Let’s turn it into power literally.”
His journey started in high school tinkering with chemistry sets and old microwaves. Over five years, he refined a design that uses microwave pyrolysis heating plastic without oxygen so its polymers break into hydrocarbon chains and powered it entirely with solar panels. The result: liquid fuels he calls “Plastidiesel” and Plastoline gasoline, plus lighter gases for heating or electricity.
In 2024, a small explosion left him with second-degree burns, but he returned to work. In 2025, his invention caught the attention of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who invested $100,000.
Turning Plastic into Power: How It Works
Pyrolysis isn’t new. Industrial plants have used it for decades to turn waste plastic into oil. But Brown’s twist is accessibility: his reactor fits in a backyard and runs on sunlight.
In plain terms:
- Step 1: Plastic waste — from soda bottles to hard-to-recycle black plastics — is shredded.
- Step 2: The reactor heats it to hundreds of degrees Celsius in an oxygen-free chamber.
- Step 3: The plastic’s long polymer chains crack into shorter hydrocarbons — the chemical backbone of fuels.
- Step 4: Vapors condense into diesel or gasoline-like liquids, while byproducts can be used for heat or energy.
Independent testing at ASAP Labs in Washington found Brown’s diesel burned cleaner than some conventional fuels, countering critics who claimed it would damage engines.
Globally, humans generate over 400 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. In the U.S., most ends up in landfills or the ocean. That sheer scale makes “chemical recycling” breaking plastics back into chemical building blocks or fuels attractive to both policymakers and entrepreneurs.
Supporters say plastic-to-fuel keeps waste out of oceans and reduces reliance on crude oil. Critics warn it could perpetuate plastic production, since companies might count on fuel conversion instead of reducing packaging.
Safety and regulation are also hurdles. Pyrolysis oils often need further refining to meet fuel standards. The process can emit CO₂ and toxic compounds if not carefully controlled. And small-scale setups like Brown’s face fire and explosion risks, as his 2024 injury underscored.
A tweet from X.
As of mid-August, Brown has not reappeared for live demonstrations, but his GoFundMe for a $1 million continuous reactor remains active, having raised just over $18,000. His supporters are pressing for updates.
Industry experts see potential and challenges.
“Scaling a backyard prototype to something commercially viable is a huge leap,”
says Dr. Laura Peterson, a chemical engineer at Georgia Tech.
“But the solar-microwave combination is clever, and the outreach he’s done is remarkable.”
