[mistel]

A quick search shows me that scrap Aluminum is going for about 50 cents (USD), and it takes about 32 cans to make a pound. Now I don't go through a lot of cans, maybe 5-10 a week, but I wonder if it is worth saving and crushing them. I could throw them in a garbage can in the shed.
Is anyone saving cans? To what end? Is the plan to resell them regularly for scrap or keep them to trade for food if money losses it's value?
I thought that some cars have aluminum engine blocks? you could get a lot more scrap from just one old junker. Maybe these have already all been scraped?

Burn aluminum!!
http://www.burnaluminum.com/

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mistel', 'A') quick search shows me that scrap Aluminum is going for about 50 cents (USD), and it takes about 32 cans to make a pound. Now I don't go through a lot of cans, maybe 5-10 a week, but I wonder if it is worth saving and crushing them. I could throw them in a garbage can in the shed.
Is anyone saving cans? To what end? Is the plan to resell them regularly for scrap or keep them to trade for food if money losses it's value?
I thought that some cars have aluminum engine blocks? you could get a lot more scrap from just one old junker. Maybe these have already all been scraped?
Burn aluminum!!
http://www.burnaluminum.com/

[yesplease]

Hmmm... Those are some awfully low prices. We see ~$1.50-2.20/lb here. That being said, with ~30 cans/lb, 5-7cents/can isn't great when we're paying 10 cents/can CRV.

[topcat]

I got 65/cent per pound last month. I/we usually take them in once a year (crushed). Got over $50 in cans this year. Paid for more beer and saved them from going into the landfill.

TC

[steam_cannon]

EDIT: It's a cool idea, but burning aluminum is difficult. So I doubt that site has any easy ideas for burning aluminum cans. But I'll check it out when it's open...

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I', 'C')ool aluminum burner idea!
I wonder how small that could be made. Maybe something like a miniature aluminum wool burner could perform well as a tent heater or pocket heater. No carbon monoxide... But as a small heater it would probably run into the same problem steel wool does, that the surface burns but much of the steel fibers core does not. It would be interesting to try though. I think the problem with incomplete steel wool burning could be solved with a continuous airflow from a small adjustable rate fan. Something I've been thinking about anyway...
http://www.palmereng.com/wool_aluminum.htm

[Blacksmith]

Aluminum powder and iron filings equal Thermite which among other things was used to weld railroad tracks. I understand the reaction is very hard to control. Sprayed into a funace it would be possible to use as a heating source.

[steam_cannon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Blacksmith', 'A')luminum powder and iron filings equal Thermite which among other things was used to weld railroad tracks. I understand the reaction is very hard to control. Sprayed into a funace it would be possible to use as a heating source.

[Blacksmith]

Try lighting steel wool, what do you have?

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Blacksmith', 'A')luminum powder and iron filings equal Thermite which among other things was used to weld railroad tracks. I understand the reaction is very hard to control. Sprayed into a funace it would be possible to use as a heating source.

[PeakOiler]

Daisy Cutter
Uses of Aluminum

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')ctive Component:
GSX (Gelled Slurry Explosive - Jellied mixture of ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder, and polystyrene).

[katkinkate]

You could use them as reflectors for a small solar oven (opened out).

[Denny]

Isn't recycling aluminum still the smartest thing? If you burn the aluminum, it will require more fresh aluminum to be smelted. So, for sure that would draw more energy than one would get from burning the aluminum.

[Blacksmith]

I think the post had more to do with the very low price paid for aluminum cans and the fact burning would be a more economic use not neccessarily a wiser use.

Then as a species, we are not always wise.

[dooberheim]

By burning aluminum, you get some of the energy back out that was used to smelt it, which is considerable. You also generate aluminum oxide fume which is lost to the environment, and a lot of ash as Tanada said.

Far better to leave to aluminum as aluminum metal and just recycle them. Far better still to reuse glass bottles.

I wonder if the aluminum beer bottles can be refilled?

DK

[Frank]

This thread shows how ridiculous it is that we don't have a national bottle bill. (This would have included cans but was shelved way-back-when i.e. pre-Iraq).

Aluminum manufacture is extremely energy intensive and recycled aluminum can be processed for something like 10% of the energy required for initial "manufacture". NOT recycling is almost criminal: of course you should!

Read about the life of a can here: http://savingenergy.wordpress.com/2006/ ... at-a-time/

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('steam_cannon', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Blacksmith', 'A')luminum powder and iron filings equal Thermite which among other things was used to weld railroad tracks. I understand the reaction is very hard to control. Sprayed into a funace it would be possible to use as a heating source.

[strider3700]

where the hell did you get 20 kgs of aluminum dust? I'm assuming you didn't make your own

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('strider3700', 'w')here the hell did you get 20 kgs of aluminum dust? I'm assuming you didn't make your own

[AdamB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')
Every year, the billions of metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) we release into the atmosphere add to the growing threat of climate change. But what if we could simply recycle all that wasted CO2and turn it into something useful?By adding electricity, water, and a variety of catalysts, scientists can reduce CO2 into short molecules such as carbon monoxide and methane, which they can then combine to form more complex hydrocarbon fuels like butane. Now, researchers think we could be on the cusp of a CO2-recycling revolution, which would capture CO2 from power plants—and maybe even directly from the atmosphere—and convert it into these fuels at scale, they report today in Joule. Science talked with one of the study’s authors, materials scientists and graduate student Phil De Luna at the University of Toronto in Canada, about how CO2 recycling works—and what the future holds for these