Waste Recycling, Extraction of Dirty Gold
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Mohammad Reza Salehi Kia,1,*
1. High school student
- Introduction: One of the issues in the world is lack of energy and shortage of water resources because of global population growth and global warming. Therefore, specialists seek to produce energy with at least pollution and cost, and to save water consumption through different methods because fossil fuel reserves and drinkable water reserves are disappearing quickly. Therefore, attention is increasing to recycle energy from the solid waste to reduce the consumption of these resources and prevent air pollution. According to the EPA, for every tone of paper that we recycle, we can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy, and 7,000 gallons of water.
- Methods: This study is an experimental research. This project examines production of water from waste through two methods including production of water from biogas and production of it from sewage which require their own processes.
System 1: In the production of water from household biogas, there are two tanks. In tank one, there are some blades to chop waste manually. In tank two, there are some micro-organisms that decomposes the waste and produces gas. There are different types of waste with high efficiency in this project such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats and different types of gases produced by micro-organisms such as methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), and dihydrogen sulfide (H2s). In this project, the methane is burnt. Thus, water vapor and carbon dioxide are produced. Funnel-shaped structure on top of the benzene lamp collects carbon dioxide and water vapor and conducts them to condenser. In the condenser because of the temperature difference, water vapor from carbon dioxide is separated. Carbon dioxide can be used in industry. Water vapor converts into liquid water which can be applied for agricultural uses, and the main reason in this project is to use it as the drinkable water that needs a lot of experiments.
System 2: The production of water from sewage is applicable for the refineries since it produces more gas volume than anaerobic fermentation (biogas). Light hydrocarbons are burnt in refineries and a lot of carbon dioxide and water vapor are produced. Funnel-shaped structure is placed on the top of torches in refineries to prevent entry of carbon dioxide into the earth atmosphere, increases of greenhouse effect, and global warming. It prevents the loss of water vapor in the same way and converts it into usable water by water distillation system. This is a useful and practical project since huge amount of gas is produced from the sewage of refineries.
- Results: In both systems, the volume of all produced gases included 65% methane, 34% carbon dioxide, and 10% other gases. Moreover, from 1863 to 1900 liters of methane in both systems, 2900 to 3000 gram of liquid water was produced. The produced liquid water can be converted into the drinkable water which needs a lot of experiments.
- Conclusion: All in all, this device is helpful for water production from waste, improving the environment, preventing entry of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and reducing of greenhouse effect. This project reduce the pollution that threatens human's health and environment, and protect natural resources with small changes.
- Keywords: solid waste, recycling energy, fuel production, protection of environment, fuel produced by waste
