Steel Protected by Cigarette Butts

A new report made by the Chinese scientists says that cigarette butts can be used to protect steel and they can block corrosion. The researchers also affirm that they found a very interesting way to extract chemicals from cigarette butts so that in the future they could be used to protect steel pipes from the process corrosion.

BBC News says that there are almost 4.5 trillion cigarette butts who make part of the environment every year. In USA they are considered no 1 littered items. Cigarette buts are found everywhere, on the beaches, in the parks. When they are in the sea they eliminate very high toxic materials and they have the ability to survive almost 15 years. The cigarette butts could come from filtered cigarettes like Parliament cigarettes or non filtered like Leana cigarettes.

According to Keep American Beautiful almost 95 percent of cigarette filters contain cellulose acetate that is a type of plastic which does not have the ability to quickly degrade and can stay in the environment. The researchers who study these problems say that cigarette butts can have a positive effect too. Steel suffers corrosion and oil producers suffer big lost because of that. The recycling of cigarette butts might be very benefic for their problem.

BBC News says that researchers have found that “by immersing the butts in water they were able to extract nine different chemical compounds, including nicotine”. Those extracts were applied to an interesting type of steel which is very often used in the oil industry. The results were so amazing, because it helped stop the corrosion even if there were very bad conditions.

The researchers have tried many times to demonstrate that cigarette butts can be used to protect steel. Many attempts where made to combat this source. A London community last November has investigated a new technology regarding the recycling cigarette butts. The main idea is to divert the butts from the landfill through sterilization and recycling process. The process above is removing the toxins in an industrial autoclave and is sterilizing the cigarette butts.

After that they are broken down into their fibrous material components and paper and are compacted into insulation “pillows.” In the U.K., there are 30,000 tons of cigarette butts are discarded each year from the smoking of 60 billion cigarettes. China is the country which consumes one-third of the world’s cigarettes.