To perform the LCA of 'burning of plastic bottle', it is important to know which gases or elements are emitted as well as the amount of each gas emissions during the plastic burning. But is there any process to find out which gases are released when the plastic bottle is burned? And is there any way to know the amount of the emissions?
Thank you in advance.
An analytical chemist could probably help you determine or train you in the process used. Taking a sample of plastic of interest and volutizing the sample into a gas chromatograph could probably estimate the types and amounts of gasses released.
I would like to add that burning plastic in a furnace and especially in a landfill involves poor combustion with a lot of smoke and noxious byproducts.
Hence to only realistic and scientific way to assess the composition of such flue gas and smoke would be by iso-kinetic sampling and thorough gas/smoke analysis.
1. This article has details of the compounds generated during the incineration of PVC ( 1. pdf).
2. This ES& T article has details of the Combustion Products of Plastics (2. pdf).
3. This review paper has pretty nice details about the pyrolysis and end-products of the most commonly used polymer types.
Article A review on pyrolysis of plastic wastes
4. A different angle- One of the first studies that showed evidence
of greenhouse gas production under environmental conditions (4. pdf).
5. This ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering paper will be very helpful for your LCA work; Critical Evaluation of Life Cycle Assessment Analyses of Plastic Waste Pyrolysis. Article Critical Evaluation of Life Cycle Assessment Analyses of Pla...
You might see: "Utilizing Waste Plastic Bottle-Based Pyrolysis Oil as an Alternative Fuel"
Article Utilizing Waste Plastic Bottle-Based Pyrolysis Oil as an Alt...
(See Table 2. )
👋 Hey there! That's a great question! 🔥
🌡️ When plastic is burned in a furnace or landfill, it can release a variety of gases into the atmosphere, such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and volatile organic compounds.
🔬 To find out which gases are being released and in what amounts, you may need to conduct some laboratory tests or consult with experts in the field of air pollution monitoring.
🧪 There are also some analytical techniques that can be used to measure the concentration of gases in the air, such as gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.
🌱 However, it's important to note that burning plastic is not a sustainable or environmentally-friendly solution for waste management. Instead, we should focus on reducing our plastic consumption and increasing our recycling and reuse efforts to minimize the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills or incinerators. Let's work towards a more sustainable future! 🌍
Dear William F. Hansen , thank you so much for your advice.
Dear Dr. Renjith VishnuRadhan Sir, Thank you so much for adding those papers. Can I contact you directly through any media like Gmail or WhatsApp?
Dear Geoffrey Guenther , Thank you so much for your suggestion.
Hello Md. Sidratul Montaha Hossain I shall send you my contact details. Best wishes.
As it was mentioned above, it depends on the plastic that is burned. The gaseous products depend also on temperature of this process, which in the case described by you is not high enough to avoid dioxins and furans as byproducts on incineration, in some cases. Of course CO and CO2 are main products.
It would be necessary to make sampling and gas/smoke analysis in order to assess the composition of this gas.
A relatively simple test can be performed by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). I operated TGA equipment for several years for the space program. You may be able to have others perform TGA tests for you.
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