Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Setups for burning liquid form aromatic waste

RustyShackleford - 3-9-2021 at 08:27

Im looking for a nice way of burning small to medium amounts of aromatic waste, 10-100ml type amounts. My usual go to method is to use a normal oil candle type setup, but the problem with this is obviously that it creates a large amount of soot unless the wick is set absolutely perfectly, and even then its stinky and produces soot.

Does anyone know of or has built a device that is able to burn solvents such as toluene and xylene without creating much soot or unoxidized hydrocarbons?
The idea i got was to pass the soot and candle flame vapors through a hot (500C+?) metal tube along with more air.
Another idea i got was to slowly, with a needle valve, meter the liquid waste into the core of a torch flame, but this wouldnt be suitable for much of my waste thats too thick or contains particles of crud.

karlos³ - 3-9-2021 at 10:01

Shulgin had a walled pit in his garden, I don't think that would be legal here, or in these days.

For your quantities, well, I assume there is other stuff in there too?
Because soot is rather coming from what else was in the solvents.

Instead of burning, if you drive a diesel, you can just redistill and collect the toluene, and when clean, pour it in your cars tank.... I think toluene has an octane number of 125 or the like! :D
For comparison, nitromethane has "just" an octane number of 110!
Your car is definitely the best device to burn such solvents sootfree.



PS: syn wrote me because of our not so ideal encounter in the morning, no worries, its all fine :)

Tsjerk - 4-9-2021 at 02:55

Can't you evaporate? Quantities < 100 ml would be gone relatively quickly, and are small enough not to hurt the environment significantly. If you have a garden or so you could place a container in a far end, maybe change it now and then when it gets very dirty.

BromicAcid - 4-9-2021 at 04:18

I used to chew up my organics with some Fenton's reagent. It will also eat aromatics converting them to benzoic acids first. On the plus side it's affordable and the reagents are somewhat available. On the minus side it can take awhile with immiscible phases and I have had concentrated Fenton's reagent go out of control and heat up enough to start boiling.

Amos - 4-9-2021 at 04:57

Quote: Originally posted by BromicAcid  
I used to chew up my organics with some Fenton's reagent. It will also eat aromatics converting them to benzoic acids first. On the plus side it's affordable and the reagents are somewhat available. On the minus side it can take awhile with immiscible phases and I have had concentrated Fenton's reagent go out of control and heat up enough to start boiling.


Did/can you make Fenton's reagent with 3% hydrogen peroxide or will a solution that dilute not have sharp enough teeth?

[Edited on 9-4-2021 by Amos]

RustyShackleford - 5-9-2021 at 03:24

Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk  
Can't you evaporate? Quantities < 100 ml would be gone relatively quickly, and are small enough not to hurt the environment significantly. If you have a garden or so you could place a container in a far end, maybe change it now and then when it gets very dirty.

ofc i could, but it would be more responsible to burn

i really do quite like the idea of sticking it in an engine like karlos proposed, not in car engine but ill try it with mower and trimmer. If it works that will be a really easy solution

andy1988 - 5-9-2021 at 07:05

Quote: Originally posted by RustyShackleford  

i really do quite like the idea of sticking it in an engine like karlos proposed, not in car engine but ill try it with mower and trimmer. If it works that will be a really easy solution

Garden equipment might not be the best. From my understanding those inefficient 2-stroke engines may release a substantial amount of their fuel into the air uncombusted.

EDIT: After re-reading the thread I guess that would be fine. But I do recall seeing a dissolving/fragmenting gasket on a YouTube show, with a claim that an user-added additive with solvent action was a likely cause of the wear.

[Edited on 6-9-2021 by andy1988]

macckone - 5-9-2021 at 12:50

A waste oil burning furnace for melting metal are in common use.
The waste oil burners may not be ideal but they will definitely burn aromatics.