Used cigarette butts make better energy-storage materials than anything on the market

Cigarettes are not only bad for your health, they're also bad for the environment. Used cigarette butts are the most frequently littered item, regularly discarded on sidewalks and out of car windows, making their way into waterways. It's estimated that about 5.6 million used cigarettes -- 766,571 metric tons -- are deposited into the environment worldwide each year.

A group of South Korean researchers have found a way to not only divert some of those used cigarette butts from ending up in the environment, but also a way to make them into something useful. They've found that the cellulose acetate that makes up most of the material in a cigarette butt can easily be changed into a carbon-based material that out-performs common materials used in energy storage devices.

"Our study has shown that used-cigarette filters can be transformed into a high-performing carbon-based material using a simple one step process, which simultaneously offers a green solution to meeting the energy demands of society.

"Numerous countries are developing strict regulations to avoid the trillions of toxic and non-biodegradable used-cigarette filters that are disposed of into the environment each year—our method is just one way of achieving this," said Professor Jongheop Yi, from Seoul National University.

The researchers were able to transform the cellulose acetate into a carbon-based material with a simple burning technique called pyrolysis. After the technique, the carbon-based material had lots of tiny pores that allowed it to acta as a high-performing supercapacitive material.

Lone Wolf wrote: 

A "green solution" to the problem of cigarette butts ???

Yeh, right..

Many of those tech' head researchers - and their ever-faithful legions of lapdog science/technology reporters - really don't have a clue !    

Raggamuffin wrote:Haha! Cigarette end.

eddie wrote:Butt out Gerbs   

Hahahaha sorry, best I could come up with so early

gerber wrote:

eddie wrote:Butt out Gerbs   

Hahahaha sorry, best I could come up with so early

Ha ha ha too very good.

Actually I'm really on fire this morn. Ashtray nearly full.  So many lists and junour doesn't know where his new sunglasses are

Ben_Reilly wrote:

gerber wrote:



Ha ha ha too very good.

Actually I'm really on fire this morn. Ashtray nearly full.  So many lists and junour doesn't know where his new sunglasses are

OK, I'm going to get all preachy on you, in the way only an ex-smoker can do.

Please quit. I want you to live! Long, and not gasping for breath.

I tried to quit, believe me -- even tried a drug that (I didn't know at the time) makes some people into deadly psychopaths (I don't know, I just had really weird dreams).

Let me recommend e-cigarettes, if they are at this point legal in your country. I'm pretty much puffing on one all day, and I can say this -- it does not weaken my lungs, the way smoking did.

Ben_Reilly wrote:Glad to hear     

It's tough, though, right? I have heard it's more addictive than heroin! Which is just one more reason to be proud.

eddie wrote:E-cigs will have their own complications Ben, I think in a few years time there will be a lot of media attention to the damage they do to somewhere in your body!

Anyway Gerbs, my darling Grandfather died from COPD - chronic lung disease basically - and literally "drowned" in his own lung secretions.

Thirty years after giving up smoking.

And you,know, cigarettes are mostly psychologically addictive than physically.
I gave up by using the a bic pen; I took out the insides and sucked on it (you could use a straw) just like a ciggie, I even flicked the "ash" off.
It made me feel as though I smoked: it was weird but it sort of worked.
I also put back my first one of the day by an hour every day, until my first one was at 8pm!! Then it hardly seemed worth the bother.

Tobacco has a voice. It tells you that you're going to find it hard to give up and you believe it.

eddie wrote:

eddie wrote:E-cigs will have their own complications Ben, I think in a few years time there will be a lot of media attention to the damage they do to somewhere in your body!

Anyway Gerbs, my darling Grandfather died from COPD - chronic lung disease basically - and literally "drowned" in his own lung secretions.

Thirty years after giving up smoking.

And you,know, cigarettes are mostly psychologically addictive than physically.
I gave up by using the a bic pen; I took out the insides and sucked on it (you could use a straw) just like a ciggie, I even flicked the "ash" off.
It made me feel as though I smoked: it was weird but it sort of worked.
I also put back my first one of the day by an hour every day, until my first one was at 8pm!! Then it hardly seemed worth the bother.

Tobacco has a voice. It tells you that you're going to find it hard to give up and you believe it.

Bump for Gerbs x

And Ben, so sorry about your dad xxx
My dad died from cancer at 63.  It was his eusophegas (sp!!!) which was smoke-related in all probability.

eddie wrote:

eddie wrote:E-cigs will have their own complications Ben, I think in a few years time there will be a lot of media attention to the damage they do to somewhere in your body!

Anyway Gerbs, my darling Grandfather died from COPD - chronic lung disease basically - and literally "drowned" in his own lung secretions.

Thirty years after giving up smoking.

And you,know, cigarettes are mostly psychologically addictive than physically.
I gave up by using the a bic pen; I took out the insides and sucked on it (you could use a straw) just like a ciggie, I even flicked the "ash" off.
It made me feel as though I smoked: it was weird but it sort of worked.
I also put back my first one of the day by an hour every day, until my first one was at 8pm!! Then it hardly seemed worth the bother.

Tobacco has a voice. It tells you that you're going to find it hard to give up and you believe it.

Bump for Gerbs x

And Ben, so sorry about your dad xxx
My dad died from cancer at 63.  It was his eusophegas (sp!!!) which was smoke-related in all probability.

eddie wrote:I hate litter with a passion!
Cigarette butts and chewing gum are the worst offenders.

As to the idea that butts can be useful....hmmmmm. Not sure I run with that idea.

Ben_Reilly wrote:

eddie wrote:

eddie wrote:E-cigs will have their own complications Ben, I think in a few years time there will be a lot of media attention to the damage they do to somewhere in your body!

Anyway Gerbs, my darling Grandfather died from COPD - chronic lung disease basically - and literally "drowned" in his own lung secretions.

Thirty years after giving up smoking.

And you,know, cigarettes are mostly psychologically addictive than physically.
I gave up by using the a bic pen; I took out the insides and sucked on it (you could use a straw) just like a ciggie, I even flicked the "ash" off.
It made me feel as though I smoked: it was weird but it sort of worked.
I also put back my first one of the day by an hour every day, until my first one was at 8pm!! Then it hardly seemed worth the bother.

Tobacco has a voice. It tells you that you're going to find it hard to give up and you believe it.

Bump for Gerbs x

And Ben, so sorry about your dad xxx
My dad died from cancer at 63.  It was his eusophegas (sp!!!) which was smoke-related in all probability.

Sorry to hear, makes me second-guess my abuse of my own esophagus (haha, I can spell!) with this stuff:



But in my defense, it tastes good.

And as my dad said, eating healthy doesn't make you live longer -- it just makes it feel that way

gerber wrote:

eddie wrote:

eddie wrote:E-cigs will have their own complications Ben, I think in a few years time there will be a lot of media attention to the damage they do to somewhere in your body!

Anyway Gerbs, my darling Grandfather died from COPD - chronic lung disease basically - and literally "drowned" in his own lung secretions.

Thirty years after giving up smoking.

And you,know, cigarettes are mostly psychologically addictive than physically.
I gave up by using the a bic pen; I took out the insides and sucked on it (you could use a straw) just like a ciggie, I even flicked the "ash" off.
It made me feel as though I smoked: it was weird but it sort of worked.
I also put back my first one of the day by an hour every day, until my first one was at 8pm!! Then it hardly seemed worth the bother.

Tobacco has a voice. It tells you that you're going to find it hard to give up and you believe it.

Bump for Gerbs x

And Ben, so sorry about your dad xxx
My dad died from cancer at 63.  It was his eusophegas (sp!!!) which was smoke-related in all probability.

My father died of it eight years ago.

Mother just been diagnosed with secondaries.  I know I know I know.  Need to get head right and in and coping place.

Getting there and believe me I will stop,  Probably not use the es as they were the things that tempted me back bit by bit.

Thanks Eds
x

Sorry guys to read of your news.

Ben_Reilly wrote:

It's estimated that about 5.6 million used cigarettes -- 766,571 metric tons -- are deposited into the environment worldwide each year.

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/used-cigarette-butts-turned-energy-storage-material.html

Caution wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:

It's estimated that about 5.6 million used cigarettes -- 766,571 metric tons -- are deposited into the environment worldwide each year.

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/used-cigarette-butts-turned-energy-storage-material.html

Hmm. So, 5.6 million cigarette butts / 766,571 metric tons = 7.3 cigarette butts per metric ton.

Don't think so!

Irn Bru wrote:Please do not throw cigarette butts in the urinals as they get all wet and soggy and difficult to light.

  

Irn Bru wrote:Please do not throw cigarette butts in the urinals as they get all wet and soggy and difficult to light.

  

feelthelove wrote:

Irn Bru wrote:Please do not throw cigarette butts in the urinals as they get all wet and soggy and difficult to light.

  

 Nasty! Do you think anyone could possibly ever be THAT desperate for a smoke???!!!