Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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Removal of Carbon from Incinerator Ash to save our earth

2007

Hello ,
I am having this problem of Removing Carbon from Incinerator Waste and to keep our EARTH Green for our future generations.
I appreciate your invaluable guidance, Thank You .

Steven Lim
employee and concern for the environmental - Singapore

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November , 2007

Carbon is an element, Steven. Short of nuclear reaction there is nothing you can do to create or destroy carbon, and the earth contains exactly the same amount of it that it contained when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

However, some of this carbon was formerly within the earth as coal, oil, and gas, or sequestered in trees and vegetation whereas it is now in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Most people currently believe that this carbon dioxide is contributing to global warming. So, if you consider global warming bad, and you subscribe to the belief that carbon dioxide contributes to it, the way to do your part is to minimize the burning -- trying instead to recycle carbon-bearing materials, or otherwise keep the carbon sequestered in solid objects.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Ted is right about the amount of carbon on or in the Earth. The only problem at the moment appears to be the form it is in; there is a correlation between the Earth's temperature and the apparant amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but to say that CO2 is the root cause of this seeming temperature increase is, in my opinion (for what that is worth) a rather dangerous statement. I feel there is insufficient evidence to make such a bold statement and that more data are needed before such claims can be upheld. However, that is another story. As far a trapping carbon is concerned, the simplest way is to bury it in landfill sites, but in Europe and I presume in many other countries, we are running out of holes in the ground, so alternative methods of trapping it are needed. There are numerous ideas being tested out, including vitrifying the ash into a safe and stable glass, trapping it in brick clay, cement or other materials and feeding it to microbes. Just have a look on the internet for a wide variety of schemes to trap the carbon. Another alternative is to reuse the carbon containing material and not convert it to this nasty CO2, but that will require energy to reprocess the waste.

Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2007