Did a Georgia man named Julian Brown invent the process for turning waste plastic into useful fuel? No, that's not true: Brown's Naturejab system harnesses solar-powered microwaves to heat a pyrolysis reactor. That is a well-understood chemical process in which heated plastics generate usable gas and oil that has been studied and refined worldwide for decades.
The claim appeared in a July 28, 2025 X.com post (archived here) by user @BGatesIsaPyscho under the title "🚨 Julian Brown who invented a way of converted plastic waste into usable fuel has been reported as missing.". It continued:
-not been seen for 2 weeks
This is what the post looked like on X at the time this fact check was written:
(Source: Lead Stories screenshot of x.com/BGatesIsaPyscho post.)
Brown, a welder by training, builds pyrolysis systems whose heat source is microwave generators powered by solar electric cells.
He did not invent plastic pyrolysis as a means of reducing plastic to gasoline, diesel and biochar. Nowhere on his website (archived here) does he claim to have invented the process. He was, however, awarded an innovation grant (archived here) for developing small-scale systems and his use of solar electrical generators and efficient microwave emitters to heat the plastics to pyrolysis temperatures.
Numerous patent applications for hydrolysis extraction of gas from waste plastics pre-date Brown's 2023 founding of Naturejab, (archived here) his company to develop solar-powered, microwave-heated plastic pyrolysis reactors.
By 2016, there was enough research into pyrolysis methods and systems to warrant a review of a range of studies and findings in the journal "Energy Conversion and Management" (archived here.)
In the Philippines, plastic-to-gas projects have been underway since 2005 (archived here).
In 2013, for instance, inventor Syngas Sdn Bhd applied for a Malaysian patent (archived here) for a system and process to produce liquid transportation fuels from plastic waste using pyrolysis. That patent was published in 2021 and has been cited in numerous other patents for the plastic-to-gas pyrolysis industry.
