3 ms·
After reading the article, be interesting to see an academic study exhaustively cataloguing the chemical compounds found in sewer systems that might be possible
by araes 1y ago
After reading the article, be interesting to see an academic study exhaustively cataloguing the chemical compounds found in sewer systems that might be possible mining targets and issues to deal with.
"We took 1000 samples from the sewers at various locations, at 1/10 gallon increments, 100 gallons total, and found: H2S, H2SO4, HS⁻, S²⁻, NH3, CH4, CO2, CHCl3, CH3Cl, CCl2F2, C6H4Cl2, C2H6O, CH2Cl2, C5H12, C3H8, C2Cl4, C2HCl3, C6H5CH3, C8H10, PO4-P, H5P3O10, H3PO4, PO3−, and C10H15N5O10P2 of #% and ug/m3 in gaseous, liquid, solid forms. Percentage of low degradability human products (wipes, tampons, plastic bags, wrappers) were #%, ug/m3. Percentages of oil / grease / and solidified food waste were #%, ug/m3."
There's a few papers on a quick search:
Sulphur: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301479721001985 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03014...
VOCs: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389424001973 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03043...
Phosphorous: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2213343723023965 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S22133...
- gilleain 1y agoMost of those are small molecules, so nearly unambiguous (C2H6O is either ethanol or dimethylether). However, C10H15N5O10P2 is more tricky. A quick google suggests https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine_diphosphate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine_diphosphate (ADP) which seems plausible.
- araes 1y agoYou're correct on at least where the guess about possible chemicals came from. Search on possible phosphorous chemicals came back with Polyphosphates (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphosphate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphosphate) as a major group, of which ADP (C10H15N5O10P2) is a major percentage. Polyphosphates in addition to Organic Phosphorous (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organophosphorus_chemistry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organophosphorus_chemistry) and Orthophosphate [PO4]3− (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphate) as the other major constituents. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2213343723023965 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S22133... A further search brought up that that Chinese found Apatite phosphorous is actually a major part. Triangular admixture of Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2, Ca10(PO4)6F2 and Ca10(PO4)6Cl2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatite https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0956053X18305750 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09560...