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Waste paper could make summer grilling more environmentally friendly

Date:
August 26, 2015
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Summertime is waning, and that means the end of backyard barbecues is almost upon us. That also means an end to dousing charcoal briquettes with lighter fluid. Reducing the use of lighter fluid might not be a bad thing, as many of those products are made from crude oil and emit potentially harmful compounds when lit. Now, researchers have developed a waste-paper-based, environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative.
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Summertime is waning, and that means the end of backyard barbecues is almost upon us. That also means an end to dousing charcoal briquettes with lighter fluid. Reducing the use of lighter fluid might not be a bad thing, as many of those products are made from crude oil and emit potentially harmful compounds when lit. Now, researchers report in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering that they developed a waste-paper-based, environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative.

Igniting fires has been a keystone to human civilization. Ancient communities used plant and animal fats for both illuminating the night and cooking their meals. For centuries, people have started fires with vegetable oils and lard. Other examples of long-used igniting fluids are kerosene and paraffin oil. Nowadays, people primarily use electricity for lighting and often pour on petroleum-based lighter fluids to start charcoal grills and wood fires. In an effort to move toward a more sustainable type of fluid, as well as to mitigate the potential harmful effects of currently available products, István T. Horváth and colleagues sought an alternative.

The researchers started with waste paper and newsprint and, through a multistep process, converted the materials into a compound called gamma-valerolactone (GVL). The team demonstrated that GVL can safely start charcoal grills and can light glass lamps without forming smoke or odors. They say that because GVL is renewable and nontoxic, it could someday be a sustainable, safer alternative fluid for lighting coals at neighborhood cookouts.


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Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Viktória Fábos, Matthew Y. Lui, Yiu Fung Mui, Yuet Yan Wong, László T. Mika, Long Qi, Edit Cséfalvay, Viktória Kovács, Tibor Szűcs, István T. Horváth. Use of Gamma-Valerolactone as an Illuminating Liquid and Lighter Fluid. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2015; 150730124106009 DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.5b00465

Cite This Page:

American Chemical Society. "Waste paper could make summer grilling more environmentally friendly." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 August 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150826113815.htm>.
American Chemical Society. (2015, August 26). Waste paper could make summer grilling more environmentally friendly. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150826113815.htm
American Chemical Society. "Waste paper could make summer grilling more environmentally friendly." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150826113815.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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