Plenty of dirty aluminum foil ends up in landfills because recyclers don’t accept it. Now, a researcher has discovered a way to convert used aluminum foil into a biofuel catalyst. He has devised a method for obtaining pure crystals of aluminum salts from the used foil. These crystals are the starting material for the preparation of alumina catalyst, used for the production of dimethyl ether—one of the world’s most promising biofuels.