PLANETARY REGULATION OF GREENHOUSE GASES BY CHANGING MUNICIPAL WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: A COMMONSENSE APPROACH.PRESENTATION AT AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY “GREEN CHEMISTRY SYMPOSIUM” JULY 16TH 2012.

Integrated System

Aliens solution to global warming. 1) Fossil fuels (carbon positive) getting low,

planetoid getting hot; inhabitants substitute biomass such as dried leaves (carbon neutral) for fossil fuels. Sea & boreal forest (spring blooms) remove 3ppm. CO2 per year

2) Development of solar/wind/tidal/geothermal- powered electrolytic cells that store electricity as hydrogen or other exothermic component.

3) Biomass charred & spread on fields. Planet becomes carbon negative. 1ppm.CO2 per year removed per year. In 25 years planetoids CO2 normalizes.

A sustainability model, for the regulation of greenhouse gases by municipal planning, is proposed: 1)An incremental tax on carbon positive fuels (c=c (highest),> c-c bond

> c-h bond (lowest) .

2) The replacement or neutralization of carbon positive (fossil) fuels by carbon neutral ones (essentially the waste stream, hydrogen & other means of energy storage). 3) The reuse and/or sequestration of waste energy and unused solar energy to the limits imposed by thermodynamics.

4)Waste can be "valorized" by the recycling of metals, plastics, and construction debris. Food waste & sewage could be used for energy & fertilizer. Further valorization may occur if biomass can be used as a CO2 sequestrant (biochar or converted by gasification to syngas, then into plastics).

The sustainable management framework is based on several models including: a) The concept of a symbiotic protist cell containing

chloroplasts

b) A “medieval model”; a “heterotrophic” urban area is sustained by surrounding "autotrophic" rural areas - using waste photosynthate (straw, stover, dung, etc) as major energy and recycling material resource.

c) A lunar base; where no gas can leave or enter, and the whole base functions as a photosynthetic recycling machine.

If each industry, household, individual and municipality could make use of their own & each others waste and waste energy streams, then sustainability, self sufficiency, and avoidance of climate change could be accomplished one city at a time. Essentially city & state (municipality)become an entropy reversal (or sustainability) machine by the simple bookkeeping of elements such as C,N & P (and H2O) & linking the movement of these elements to the economic system. However this will not be easy & would involve changes to the "value" system. If successful, waste valorization could be linked to social valorization & "wasted people" given meaningful work.

Alternate Energy Solutions To Global Warming

Solar – photovoltaic or steam based turbine generators or high temp. disassociation of H2O

Wind – generators Geothermal - steam

generators Waste – syngas via steam

reforming or “anaerobic” combustion – Gas Turbine or Fischer Tropsch to gasoline, H2 etc.

Various problems associated with each approach however each approach is “carbon neutral”

Some definitions of valorization In German language, the general meaning of

"Verwertung" is the use or application of something (an object, process or activity) so that it makes money, or generates value, with the connotation that the thing validates itself and proves its worth when it results in earnings, a yield. Thus, something is "valorized" if it has yielded its value. Similarly, Marx's specific concept refers both to the process whereby a capital value is conferred or bestowed on something, and to the increase in the value of a capital asset. (Wilkipedia)

a stabilizing or fixing of prices, usually by government action

a conferring of value upon something

Valorization of Bone & sewage sludge Perhaps the best example of potential valorization is provided by bones

from the food waste stream & phosphatic sludge from wastewater plants.

Phosphate is presently mined in enormous quantities from the rapidly depleting phosphate rock reserves of (mainly) North Africa) for fertilizer. Until all the rock has been mined out, a bone – collecting, phosphate reclamation industry cannot compete in price with companies exploiting the fossil phosphate rock due to “economies of scale” & amounts of labor involved. Implications are that recycling companies cannot compete well with companies exploiting concentrated natural resources. (Unless the resource is very valuable such as the rare metals used in electronics).

Essentially “Laissez Faire” in its present form, compels us to “trash the planet”.

Hence municipal subsidies based on the “waste tipping fee” might be deployed in element & resource recycling & would “valorize” these materials. The flow of money out of a community to pay for imported raw materials would be staunched. Eventually it might be possible to privatize municipal recycling industries ; especially if the raw materials are linked to local manufacturing.

By monetizing the flow of energy & resources from the waste stream , sunlight & other forms of alternate energy (by the printing of scrip linked to the creation joules of fixed energy) & similar to food stamps in mode of distribution, it may be possible to create a viable new currency that supports an alternative economy similar to that of the detritovores & decomposers of the forest floor. The regenerated energy & material resources might also help to support our existing “canopy” economy.

Though outside the field of chemistry, the flow of money controls the destiny of entire nation states, & maybe the fate of the warming planet. The present wide ranging fiscal problems may relate to the printing of currency as monetized debt. This involves the manipulation of an increasing negative. As an economy grows the debt load increases. At a certain point , when the debt grows too large, instability might occur. Linking the printing of currency to an energy & commodity base, similar to the blood or sap of an organism or, alternatively, the valorization & subsequent devalorization of bound solar energy ( photosynthate etc.) through an ecosystem, might avoid currency & debt collapse.

Perhaps the “ultimate valorization” can be conveyed by a simple “thought experiment”.Imagine a pile of manure & trash under a large transparent glass dome positioned on the moons dust - covered surface. Inside the dome are a couple of astronauts armed with simple tools & packets of seeds & spores etc. Given time the manure could be transformed by decomposers & plants into breathable oxygen, clean water, food & energy resources. The trash could supply them with rare metals, plastics & a myriad of useful items. With time the waste would almost disappear & a benign environment, with a self- sufficient colony could develop.

How much easier it would be to do this on earth!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST !