BY JOSE PALU-AY DACUDAO
THE SECOND major man-made greenhouse gas is methane CH4.
Methane is naturally produced in massive quantities by methanogens, or methane-producing microbes of the domain Archaea under anaerobic or unoxygenated conditions. (The process is called Anaerobic respiration.)
CO2 + 4 H2 → CH4 + 2 H2O
If we assume we start with a sugar substrate, then the over-all reaction is C6H12O6 → 3CO2 + 3CH4
Methanogens occur in deeper layers of the soil, the seafloor, lake bottoms, wetlands, in the guts of ruminants and termites.
What can we control of the above?
We obviously can’t ban seafloors and lake bottoms.
Rice planting is done in wetlands, and produces copious amounts of methane, but we obviously can’t ban rice and survive the revolt of millions of rice-craving stomachs. There are suggestions that we try to shift to being corn eaters, but this will hardly work in a traditionally rice-eating country. We can also hardly ban our favourite ruminants – carabaos, cattle, goats.
What we can do is limit or ban landfills.
Other countries are already doing it. How?
Incineration.
For example, it was rumoured decades ago that Singapore was about to down in trash. That has been solved. Almost all of Singapore’s wastes are incinerated.
Why does this work in lessening global warming?
First, one must understand that Methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than Carbon Dioxide. In brief, of the two, we would rather CO2 than CH4.
Incinerating (burning, combusting) organic material chemically is like the reverse of photosynthesis. You produce Carbon Dioxide. You do NOT produce Methane.
C6H12O6 + 6O2 → 6CO2 + 6H2O
In a landfill, you get anaerobic respiration and produce Carbon Dioxide AND Methane.
C6H12O6 → 3CO2 + 3CH4
Therefore, we would rather incinerate trash, not bury them in landfills if we are trying to avoid global warming.
Again the Clean Air Act is not sympathetic to incineration. The Clean Air Act needs to be amended and cleaned.
As a side note, cremation is literally the incineration of a human body. We have already been doing this by the thousands every week since COVID.
There are ‘issues’ of possible pollutants that incineration can produce. These are mostly non-issues. Much of the bulk of waste is all kinds of plastic. But most plastics are just atoms of Carbon and Hydrogen. Incinerating them produces Carbon Dioxide and water (not Methane). The commonly used plastic that can produce toxic pollutants is just Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). There is a specific reason. PVCs contain Chlorine, as its name indicates. Burning substances with Chlorine can produce dioxins and dioxin-like compounds. And Dioxins are toxic.
The solution presents itself. Incinerate all the plastics. But not PVCs. Find other ways to dispose of PVCs. It’s just one exception./PN
