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I recall from Chemistry: When hydrocarbons combust, the outputs generally are CO2 and Water. Driven home by living with a gearhead after college. At least so

I recall from Chemistry: When hydrocarbons combust, the outputs generally are CO2 and Water. Driven home by living with a gearhead after college. At least some of the liquid dripping from tailpipes is water.

mikepurvis 6y ago
Also relevant if you've ever looked into what a modern "condensing" boiler/furnace is: https://www.ernstheating.com/blog/condensing-furnaces/ https://www.ernstheating.com/blog/condensing-furnaces/ A consequence of the secondary heat exchanger is that a bunch of the steam from the exhaust condenses back into water, and unfortunately it's water containing a bunch of heavy metals and other nasty stuff, which usually ends up flushed into the municipal sanitary sewer. Probably still better than it going up the chimney and into the atmosphere, but it would be nice if there was a way to capture and isolate those pollutants in that relatively concentrated state, before they end up mixed in with everyone's bathtub water.
- Scoundreller 6y ago
  My hope is that this is highly dependent on fuel source. Really bad for coal, medium for kerosene and not a huge issue for natural gas.
  - mikepurvis 6y ago
    Me too, but the reason I have it on my mind is because I was reading the technical manual [1] for the fancy new NG boiler I'm having installed next week, and they specifically list the max concentrations of lead, chromium, cadmium, and other scary things in the condensate water after the neutralizing unit, with a recommendation to check with your my regulations to ensure that it's legal to dispose of this water down the drain. Possibly it's just an abundance-of-caution thing, but I assume the reason for the warning is that in some places it isn't, perhaps because of stricter environmental standards, or maybe a sewage treatment system which isn't set up for this. 1: https://www.viessmann.ca/content/dam/vi-brands/CA/pdfs/wall-mount/vitodens_100_tdm.pdf/_jcr_content/renditions/original.media_file.inline.file/vitodens_100_tdm.pdf https://www.viessmann.ca/content/dam/vi-brands/CA/pdfs/wall-...
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > unfortunately it's water containing a bunch of heavy metals and other nasty stuff, which usually ends up flushed into the municipal sanitary sewer. Probably still better than it going up the chimney and into the atmosphere, but it would be nice if there was a way to capture and isolate those pollutants in that relatively concentrated state, before they end up mixed in with everyone's bathtub water. You can't be claiming that your bathtub draws from untreated sewage? The treatment plant is a logical place to extract heavy metals and other nasty things; that is its entire purpose.
  - ncmncm 6y ago
    It would be nice if treatment plants did that.
    - thaumasiotes 6y ago
      Treatment plants in general obviously do do that.
      - ncmncm 6y ago
        If they did, there would not be a huge industry in removing heavy metals from industrial wastewater before flushing to municipal sewer systems.
        vagrantJin 6y ago
        You make it sound like a conspiracy.
        ncmncm 6y ago
        It's only a conspiracy if it is against the law.
  - mikepurvis 6y ago
    No, the point I'm making is that most of what sewage treatment plants do is deal with organics— soapy water, human waste, probably a bunch of clothing fibers, whatever. Without knowing much about waste treatment processes, I could imagine that it would be relatively easier to extract and isolate heavy metals in a state where they're otherwise just in water, vs once they're extremely diffuse and mixed in with all the rest of it.

mikepurvis 6y ago

Also relevant if you've ever looked into what a modern "condensing" boiler/furnace is: https://www.ernstheating.com/blog/condensing-furnaces/ https://www.ernstheating.com/blog/condensing-furnaces/ A consequence of the secondary heat exchanger is that a bunch of the steam from the exhaust condenses back into water, and unfortunately it's water containing a bunch of heavy metals and other nasty stuff, which usually ends up flushed into the municipal sanitary sewer. Probably still better than it going up the chimney and into the atmosphere, but it would be nice if there was a way to capture and isolate those pollutants in that relatively concentrated state, before they end up mixed in with everyone's bathtub water.

Scoundreller 6y ago
My hope is that this is highly dependent on fuel source. Really bad for coal, medium for kerosene and not a huge issue for natural gas.
- mikepurvis 6y ago
  Me too, but the reason I have it on my mind is because I was reading the technical manual [1] for the fancy new NG boiler I'm having installed next week, and they specifically list the max concentrations of lead, chromium, cadmium, and other scary things in the condensate water after the neutralizing unit, with a recommendation to check with your my regulations to ensure that it's legal to dispose of this water down the drain. Possibly it's just an abundance-of-caution thing, but I assume the reason for the warning is that in some places it isn't, perhaps because of stricter environmental standards, or maybe a sewage treatment system which isn't set up for this. 1: https://www.viessmann.ca/content/dam/vi-brands/CA/pdfs/wall-mount/vitodens_100_tdm.pdf/_jcr_content/renditions/original.media_file.inline.file/vitodens_100_tdm.pdf https://www.viessmann.ca/content/dam/vi-brands/CA/pdfs/wall-...
thaumasiotes 6y ago
> unfortunately it's water containing a bunch of heavy metals and other nasty stuff, which usually ends up flushed into the municipal sanitary sewer. Probably still better than it going up the chimney and into the atmosphere, but it would be nice if there was a way to capture and isolate those pollutants in that relatively concentrated state, before they end up mixed in with everyone's bathtub water. You can't be claiming that your bathtub draws from untreated sewage? The treatment plant is a logical place to extract heavy metals and other nasty things; that is its entire purpose.
- ncmncm 6y ago
  It would be nice if treatment plants did that.
  - thaumasiotes 6y ago
    Treatment plants in general obviously do do that.
    - ncmncm 6y ago
      If they did, there would not be a huge industry in removing heavy metals from industrial wastewater before flushing to municipal sewer systems.
      - vagrantJin 6y ago
        You make it sound like a conspiracy.
        ncmncm 6y ago
        It's only a conspiracy if it is against the law.
- mikepurvis 6y ago
  No, the point I'm making is that most of what sewage treatment plants do is deal with organics— soapy water, human waste, probably a bunch of clothing fibers, whatever. Without knowing much about waste treatment processes, I could imagine that it would be relatively easier to extract and isolate heavy metals in a state where they're otherwise just in water, vs once they're extremely diffuse and mixed in with all the rest of it.