posted
Cool. A high school junior figured out a way to make plastic bags decompose in about 3 months. For a science fair project.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Very cool, but "alittle bit of carbon dioxide" is not a very useful expression of the amount. It seems like "alitle bit" becomes "a buttload" when done on an industrial scale.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Good genetics, bad environmental science. Plastic bags are a huge carbon sink - just what we need.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Oh, for crying out loud. So you build it in the middle of a forest and feed the trees with it.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Lisa: Oh, for crying out loud. So you build it in the middle of a forest and feed the trees with it.
It doesn't quite work like that. You could put it in the middle of the Taiga and it still wouldn't contradict the effect.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Well, we do have ways of sequestering carbon, and are looking at more. We've been lacking good ways to deal with waste plastic. I don't know how practical this method of breakdown is, but it certainly sounds like it has potential.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
It seems like combining the CO2 byproducts of this young man's process with the research described in the article I linked in the Green Energy thread could work rather well, actually.
Of course, this plastic bio-degrading hasn't exactly been peer-reviewed, either. The link provided in this thread didn't have any particular evidence to back it up, so it would certainly need to be verified.
Posts: 1099 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Sterling: Well, we do have ways of sequestering carbon, and are looking at more. We've been lacking good ways to deal with waste plastic.
WRONG!!! (on both counts).
There are no functioning industrial scale carbon sequestration projects. The technology is still at the very early research stages and it is unclear whether or not it can everwork with less energy input than one can get burning the fossil fuels. Burying plastic in landfills is infinitely easier than sequestering carbon.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
I doubt that any company can even insure usefully large-scale geological or oceanic carbon dioxide sequestration experiments, let alone industrial-scale projects. "...a limnic eruption occurred at Lake Nyos which triggered the sudden release of about 1.6 million tonnes of CO2...suffocating some 1,700 people within 25 kilometres (16 mi) of the lake..." An average coal-burning powerplant produces 1.2 million metric tons of CO2 per year. For US coal-fired powerplants alone, carbon dioxide injection would create the equivalent of ~1521 "LakeNyos"es every 16months, ~1141 per year, ~3 per day.
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