Help

[Jacobie09]

Internet research is very helpful indeed, BUT I've noticed that most teachers want you too use books to show that you are working hard.

[Ashun]

I don't think books will be more helping me.yes, I'm searching for magzines,journels,science reports(as Donna says). Yeah! I've selected very interesting topic.

O.k, how should I collect datas for the better result?
Thanks!
Ashun

[donnahardy2]

Hi Ashun,

John has given you some really good suggestions for finding the scientific papers that you need for this project. You need to find any scientific source of information that will help you learn more about your subject, and use as a basis for designing your experiment. John is correct; a university library would be the best place to find the complete articles.

And Jacobie has also brought up a good point about the class assignments. Your teacher wants you to go through the process of finding pertinent background information for your project. You need to understand the scientific principle behind your project and usually a good science textbook will provide that information. But you also need recent scientific articles for specific details, and also to give you an idea of how to set up an experiment that will give you measurable results.

Here is an example of how you can proceed. First, do an internet search for "Google scholar," and then type in your search terms, for example "incineration of plastic." This will bring up a list of scientific articles with no commercials. Unfortunately, as John has pointed out, most of the complete articles are not available, but reading the abstracts should be helpful and you should be able to find some complete articles to read.

Here is an abstract that describes the design of a new machine that will pull up plastic mulch from a soil bed of strawberry or pepper plants and incinerate it. Please note that the project was not successful and the machine method did not improve manual methods of plastic mulch removal. So this would be a great topic for you to investigate. It's a problem that still needs to be solved. Perfect subject for a science project!

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1 ... 8v06n01_03

Here is an abstract that includes the tables and figures from the paper. This research report describes a research project that optimized the dehydrochlorination of plastic as it is incinerated. This is an interesting chemistry problem. Please note the data included in the graphs. This is the type of measurable result that you need for your project board.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 7098001247

And here is an article that you can download and see all of the details. This was an investigation on the incomplete combustion of plastic waste as it is incinerated in a kiln. Please note the detailed protocol in the article. The primary purpose of this article is to describe a method for measuring the problem, but the authors do not offer a solution to the problem of incomplete combustion of the plastics. Again, this is another problem that needs to be solved by additional scientific research, perhaps in your science project.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1 ... 7.10466202

I hope these examples will give you a good idea on how to proceed. You have not explained exactly what problem you are trying to solve, so please let us know what you want to do.

Donna Hardy

[deleted-93346]

Awesome work, Donna.

Jacobie, this site is not the place to discuss creationism. It would be courteous to remove the reference to this topic from your signature.

[Jacobie09]

No disrespect meant when I say this. Since this is a science site, don't I have the right to say that? I might be wrong, but this is a GOOD place to put that.

[donnahardy2]

Hi John,

Thanks!

Jacobie,

I agree with John. We're very serious about science projects on this website and we are trying to help everyone who needs help be successful with their project. It's OK to post comments on other students threads as long as you are trying to be helpful. However, the reference to creationism is distracting and not really appropriate for this site, and especially not in someone else's thread. You are correct, you have the right to say what you want, but John was just pointing out that this is not the right place for statements on creationism.

Ashun,

Your project is very important! Please let us know if you have any questions about the last post I made. I know it's a lot of information to go through, but I think it will help you be successful with your project. Be sure to let me know what resources you have available, because I'm sure that you will have to adapt the experimental design.


Donna

[Jacobie09]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean but I will remove it. Sorry if I've made a disturbance.

[donnahardy2]

Hi Jacobie,

Thanks!

Donna

[Jacobie09]

I guess we just added a whole lot of Off Topic posts. Sorry Ashun.

[Ashun]

Nice collections of sites(it's really helping) Donna!
But unfortunately I've not acess to any library & full articles are unavailable.
O.k, I'm working to get more energy or electricity from these
wastes(theme of the project) including that I will be able to reduce it's ill effects on environment(i.e environmental problems will be treated as the main problem in the project).

Is it true that complete combustion releases only co2 & water particles?
I wonder if complete combustion of plastics are possible.
Thanks!
Ashun

[donnahardy2]

Hi Ashun,

It’s OK if you don’t have access to a library. You can still have a great project. Reading the abstracts on this subject will help you understand what is being done on the subject. Have you tried doing any more searches in Google scholar?

Also, producing more energy and reducing the environmental effects of incinerating plastic are two separate major projects. I think you are trying to do too much! Try to narrow your topic so you are only working on one project. Remember the paper from my last post; the paper only documented the problem of incomplete incineration of plastics.

Here is an abstract only, which compares energy production from 4 different methods, including incinerating plastic:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 8103003951

Here is a patent from 1986 describing an incinerator system. Can you think of a better design? This could be an engineering project.

http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en&lr= ... ic&f=false

Here’s an abstract that evaluates the best way to recover energy from the plastic used in discarded TV sets. You can look at the figures and tables to get an idea of what was done to measure results.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 2606003465

Here is the first page of an article on incineration of municipal solid wastes to produce energy. An e-mail address for the primary author is included. Why don’t you write to the author and request additional information?

http://www.springerlink.com/content/n21m81771783r17t/

Why don’t you visit your local landfill site and find out what is happening with plastic wastes in your community. Perhaps you could identify a topic that would benefit your community.

Does this give you any ideas?

Donna

[Ashun]

I was not on net for a long time.
O.k, just I had to participate in state level science congress for the same project.
Yeah! I was selected for state awardee.
Now, I've got chance to get participate in national level.
Thanks Donna & sc. Buddies for kind help & important links.
My presentation will be on 27th of December.


Yes, about narrowing the project, I want to say that ENERGY is the central theme.
And if we make use of these wastes to produce energy, then we will be automatically able to solve it's environmental problems.
Most of your links were really exceiting & I'm trying more on G.Scholar.
Thank u!

[deleted-93346]

Congratulations, Ashun and best wishes for the nationals.

[Ashun]

Thanks, thanks a lot.

[donnahardy2]

Hi Ashun,

I would like to send my congratulations to you as well. This is really good news that you won at the state level, and I know that was a lot of work. Good luck to you at the nationals! Please let us know if you need any more advice.

Donna Hardy

[Ashun]

Thanks,
Why do you think that that was a lot of work.
O.k, I'm narrowing my project just on energy(electricity) production.
I would like to say another thing that in some of the links(of your's & others on g.scholar) contains very very complex terms. Just as being a 10th grade student, I am not able to understand some of those. I think, I will need to have very deep study on the theme.
Ashun

[donnahardy2]

Hi Ashun,

You have obviously done some work on this, and you must have done a really great proposal to win at the state level.

Understanding the scientific articles is challenging sometimes because of the technical terms. However, try to learn as much as you can. The background sections that explain why the research project was done and the materials and methods sections includes the experimental details.

We would be happy to try to explain more if you have a specific question on one of the references. Or, you could e-mail the primary author and ask your questions.

Donna Hardy

[Ashun]

Is it possible to convert Dioxin released(considering hydrocarbon) into some fuel using some chemistry.

[donnahardy2]

Hi Ashun,

Dioxin is an organic molecule that would be destroyed by incineration. It is usually present as a trace contaminant, so would not be a significant source of energy. In addition, it is one of the most hazardous chemicals known, so you should not plan to use dioxin in your science project. And definitely avoid using any samples that might contain dioxin; it would be extremely hazardous.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs225/en/

Donna

[Ashun]

I could not find any efficient method to destroy dioxins perfectly.
Can these really be destroyed during incernation?
Thanks!

[donnahardy2]

Hi Ashun,

Any organic molecule can be destroyed by heat, however, burning dioxins is very hazardous because they can be vaporized before they are destroyed. It would be great if you could design a system that would destroy the dioxin before it could be released into the atmosphere. You would need to find out what temperature would be required. In my experience, I know that organics will vaporize if heated at 600-800 degrees Centigrade for 24 hours, but I don't know the minimum temperature or time for this process.

Donna Hardy

[donnahardy2]

Hi Ashun,

Here's a link with a little more information about dioxin incineration. There's information for contacting the dioxin organization and references at the bottom of the page. Apparently the key is to cool the gases quickly and avoid having metal ions in the sample, which can cause formation of dioxins.

http://www.dioxinfacts.org/sources_trends/the_way.html

So, you should be able to find out exactly what you need to do.

Donna

[Ashun]

O.k, When some acidic elements are released while burnimg them, they are in gaseous state.Then how to get rid of these dangerous elements if I'm thinking about bases.

Infact this was the major objection aroused by one of the evaluators. They asked me how your scrubber will function if acids are in gases & dry.
Will u plz explain me in detail, what's this & what I should do for better project?

[donnahardy2]

Hi Ashun,

A weakly basic anion exchange resin can be used to adsorb acids from solutions and will probably also work for gases: You would use a weakly basic anion exchange resin in the free base for to adsorb the hydrogen ions from the sample:

http://www.diaion.com/en/products/ion_04_01.html

http://www.amantech.com/anionwbm.htm

It would be helpful if you could post some more details about your project. Are you planning to do an experiment or are you designing a new process?

Donna Hardy

[Ashun]

Hi,
It would be great for me to do experiment.
But I was thinking about cost.I would like to know the average cost to do experiment & for it's efficient functioning, if established.
If costs are not affordable for me, I would love to think about the new design.& It will be of great help!
Thanks!

[Ashun]

Yes, the two links above are quite complex for me.
I couldn't understand most of the things in the above two links.
Thanks!

[donnahardy2]

Hi Varun,

I apologize for not explaining the chemistry in more detail.

The two links describe typical weakly basic anion exchange resins. These products are ion exchange resins composed of a plastic bead with tertiary amino functional groups covalently attached to the resin matrix. If this resin is washed with a solution with a pH above 7, the functional group will be uncharged (free amine, NH2).

When acid is passed over the resin, the pH is lowered and the resin will absorb hydrogen ions from the resin. The resin now has a positive charge, which requires an anion to balance the positive charge, so the anionic component of the acid will also be absorbed onto the resin. The anion that associates with the positive charge on the resin is called the counterion. So the resin will absorb acids from the sample.

The capacity of anion exchange resins is typically 1 mM of acid per mL of resin. If you know how much acid is being released from the incinerator, then you will know how long a specific volume of resin will last in operation.

Let me know if you need additional explanation.

I don't know exactly what you can do for your science project. This is something that you have to choose on your own, based on what you can do. The links that I have posted on this topic have included a number of problems on your subject that would be suitable for a project. However, there is a problem because these samples are potentially toxic.

I know that you want to do a project that is low in cost. What equipment do you have available at your school to work with? Do you have a suitable location where it would be safe to actually do incineration experiments? With all of the research papers you have read, is there one problem that you are interested in working on? Incomplete incineration of plastics? Removal of acid from the emitted gasses? Go back and look at the ideas that we have covered here and let me know what idea appeals to you most. I will be happy to make additional suggestions.


Donna Hardy