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2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/sci/ - Science & Math

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15432440 No.15432440 [Reply] [Original]

Can you combust plastic waste, particularly polypropylene, and somehow filter/purify the combustion of such that the carbon is pumped into a greenhouse while keeping the air clean and smog free? I grow mushrooms commercially in polypropylene bags and my friend has greenhouses, it seems like a natural but taboo relationship. Is it not feasible? I don't want to produce smog, so was hoping the filth could be captured in a filter of some sort. Just not really sure how this works since it's so politicized.

>> No.15432455

You could also use the combustion to provide during the winter. What's so wrong about this idea that it isn't happening? It must not be economical to purify the output? Even when the yield and heating gains offset the cost?

>> No.15432458

And can any lifeform actually accelerate the decomposition of polypropylene, or do they just eat it and poop it out essentially unmodified?

>> No.15432641

>>15432455
It is cheaper to dump it in Africa, and it is hard to purify the toxic gasses.
>>15432458
There are some experiments with these that you can look up in your favorite search engine. You have two approaches here:
>Make a decomposing plastic.
This will be useful for short-term-use plastics but obviously bad for long-term-use plastics.
>Make germs that eat ANY kind of plastic.
What happens if they spread uncontrollably?

>> No.15432672

>>15432440
I remember some combustion technology that happened using supercritical steam. Oxygen, steam and garbage where pumped in and everything was decomposed to salts, oxides and gasses, usually nitrogen and CO2.
Maybe theres a simpler way. Does it depend on the combustion temperature? Does it help if the plastic is shredded?

>> No.15432679

>>15432641
>It is cheaper to dump it in Africa,
Normal garbage isnt dumped in Africa, only electronic waste and toxic waste that costs a lot of money to get rid off. That justifies the ride.
That one time that Trafigura dumped hydrogen sulfide in Ivory Coast street dumpsters and 100.000 people were poisoned.

>> No.15432692

>>15432440
Incomplete combustion of gas, liquid fuels, and even more, of plastics can generate ethylene. You really don't want ethylene inside a greenhouse, besides the fact that's hard to remove (only ventilation works)

>> No.15432750
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15432750

>>15432440

You'd need to combust it at high enough temperatures, guesstimate well above 700 °C. And unless you got some oven specifically designed to keep the material fully at that temperature to burn rückstandsfrei you'd also need some kind of particle filter. So it is possible, question is if it is feasible in a small scale setting.

>> No.15432791

>>15432440
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/01/230123083443.htm#:~:text=Summary%3A,eats%20and%20actually%20digests%20plastic.&text=FULL%20STORY-,The%20bacterium%20Rhodococcus%20ruber%20eats%20and%20actually%20digests%20plastic.,for%20Sea%20Research%20(NIOZ).

>The bacterium Rhodococcus ruber eats and actually digests plastic. This has been shown in laboratory experiments by PhD student Maaike Goudriaan at Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ).