So they say, but I want to know more, eg. At what temperature does PLA burn down to nothing else than CO2 and H2O? That would be a great start. Is it 800C? More?
Discussion
It can probably be done. We would just need an obscene amount of power to fully reduce it to its base elements, something like a hydrogen blast furnace. The economics wouldn't add up until we it is basically free power or there is some market value to doing so. People aren't going to invest the capital to do so purely out of altruism, somebody needs to be earning something of value.
It also depends on the type of plastic as well, anything with chlorine or flourine in it would add extra complexity.
Right, of course. I am looking to getting more information on how it can work.
I pressed ChatGPT to tell me, and it finally cracked and told me it's 800C to break dioxins, furans and other VOC created during fuming and burning PLA down to water and CO2.
Not that insanely high temperature.
Considering there's lots of places which burn trash and there's even been headlines about cities paying to send and burn their trash to special plants, I feel it can't be that unviable to pull off.
Could a private incineration plant be located at a farm and earn money just for accepting trash and offsetting costs by producing electricity for mining?