h a l f b a k e r yLeft for Bread
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Instead of using tons of electricity and expensive means to
reach high temperatures (300 for pyrogenic treatment and
5000 for PGP (plasma gas) why not directly use
concentrated sun.
This project would get funded from both the solar guys,
and the waste treatment people, and COULD even produce
large amounts of electricity for a small area.
I'm saying COULD, because the more important part is
having a non polluting system for treating the plastic bags
and cups we use.
A sea based factory would be great, because then there
would be an incentive to gather the tons of undersea
plastic garbage accumulated since the birth of plastic circa
1964. Providing of course that the factory itself is non
polluting.
[link]
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I believe one of the products of burning plastics is dioxin. |
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Dioxin burns too. But what is the goal of treatment here? To convert it all to CO2? Or does this produce alkanes for fuel? |
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What about just exposing plastic to un-concentrated sunlight, for longer periods of time? |
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To produce electricity. But that should be the
secondary cause. At such temperatures there are no
dioxins released. |
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"Dioxin" is not a unique substance; the toxic chemicals associated with incineration and bleaching are various chlorinated dibenzodioxins (which are (confusingly) collectively called "dioxin", but (even more confusingly) don't include the two isomers of dioxin itself). |
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These chlorinated dibenzodioxins are (obviously) only formed when chlorine is present. They are one of the reasons why PVC is more hazardous than other plastics when burned, and why it's safer to burn things further from the sea. |
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Dioxin proper (which does not contain chlorine) burns (as per [bungston]), but I gather that it's not trivial to use heat or burning to render chlorinated organic molecules safe, in general. |
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