[Bioconversion] Re: Fireballs, Gasifiers and Heathuts

[andrew]

On Saturday 21 January 2006 19:24, Jeff Davis wrote:
> Dear List,
>
> I gave plastic a try in my cement mixer with some kind of round rocks. I
> call this "Rock & Roll". Looks like thumbs down. Odd the plastic wraps
> around the part that you do not want it to (disposal) but will not wrap
> around the rocks (ball mill).

I'm not surprised, wrapping plastics are very resilient. I drive a mulching 
machine, it turns stumps to compost-able fibres quickly but any plastic just 
comes out a bit more battered but essentially the same. Rabbit's skin fares 
similarly but the contents disappear, 

> Maybe plastic could be melted into an ingot then processed. 

I think a briquette using wrapping plastic as a binder has lots of potential, 
the trouble is all the standards writers condemn it as a waste and 
contaminant.

> Maybe this is a 
> wast of time. 

Probably.


> Are all plastics bad (dioxins) to burn? 

No most wrapping plastics are simple hydrocarbon chains, in essence not a lot 
different from oil, the difference is in fillers and colourings. Dioxins and 
furans are derivatives of hydrocarbons with chlorine associated with them, 
like PVC and neoprene.


> What if gasified then  
> burned in (fueled) an engine?

Sounds fine to me.

> How about chopped plastic mixed with soil as 
> a soil conditioner (maybe this is bad)?

This depends on what you are trying to achieve,

To my mind all the time we burn liquid fossil fuels then there is little 
reason not to burn plastics derived from them, as long as we do it equally as 
cleanly.

AJH