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Recycling gases from burning coal and oil
Name: Lynn Slezak
Status: Other
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
Is it possible to recycle ash and gases from burnt wood, coal, and all other
flammable solids or liquids by adding a readily available gas such as oxygen
under very high pressure with a match and several ounces of gasoline?
How
much would it cost to add a pipe on already existing power plants or build new
ones? How much fuel would be required?
Would it pollute the atmosphere?
Would it be economical to keep in operation?
Replies:
An article entitled "Waste to Energy: Ashes to Ashes?" was published in the
November 1991 issue of "Waste Age" magazine, on page 46.
Mortis
Question was: "Is it possible to recycle ash and gases from burnt wood, coal,
...."
Ashes from organic materials (wood, coal, etc) are used as fillers materials
in several concrete mixtures that are used in high performance applications.
Using these materials as fillers has shown to increase the structural
integrity of the concrete by increasing fracture resistance and decreasing
fatigue time to failure rates.
Your library should have some information on this in books about concrete -
types, uses, etc.
Woodlab
The previous response noted that organic ash is often used as filler in
building materials. This is true. However, there is a down side to this as
well -- coal deposits often contain traces of uranium byproducts as well, and
are often concentrated in the ash (does not burn with the rest of the coal,
and is therefore in much higher amounts compared to the mass of the ash it
ends up sharing its time with.) So when these are added to concrete, it makes
the buildings themselves radioactive (ever so slightly). The background
radiation is a good deal higher than if the ash had not been added. (keep in
mind -- this is only from coal ash -- wood ash does not contain even a
fraction of the uranium by products as coal does).
Wordsworth
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Update: June 2012
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