Topic Of The Invention And Technical Field

This invention is about a method of recycling tar in cigarette butts containing thousands of different toxic substances harmful to living creatures and nature, by mixing with ethanol, which is used as fuel.

Known Situation Of Technique

It is known that tobacco was first produced by the native Americans of the American continent for therapeutic and religious purposes. With the discovery of America in 1492, Christopher Columbus and his friends returned with the smoking sticks in their hands and introduced the people of the old world with tobacco.

The consumption of using tobacco has been increased rapidly after people started to use it as a pleasure-giving substance. Various restrictions and prohibitions on tobacco use is seen in certain countries have been introduced for various reasons. Prohibition and death sentences imposed against tobacco use have led to the deaths of many people, yet people have continued to smoke. Tobacco use and agriculture have been encouraged when governments have recognized the income they will receive from tobacco Thus, the states started to establish concessions and monopolies to receive various taxes from tobacco.

Tobacco is known to be used in a variety of ways for pleasure. Tobacco is consumed directly without any filtering process, however, it can be consumed in a filtered manner especially with cigarettes. Smoking is characterized as a visually contagious epidemic. The main chemical materials in cigarettes are polonium-210 (carcinogen), radon (radiation), methanol (missile fuel), toluene (thinner), cadmium (battery metal), butane (tube gas), ddt (insecticide), hydrogen cyanide (gas) chamber poison), acetone (nail polish remover), naphthalene (moth repellent), hydrogen cyanide (gas chamber poison), arsenic (mouse poison), ammonia (toilet cleaner), carbon monoxide (exhaust gas), tar (pitch) nicotine and 3,884 toxic substance.lt gives a serious damage to nature, living creatures and especially, human health.

SUBSTITUTE SHEETS (RULE 26) Worldwide, cigarette consumption releases approximately 2.6 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide and 5.2 billion kilograms of methane into the air annually. These toxic particles can be hang in the air for hours and reduce the air quality of the atmosphere. This pollution in the atmosphere causes cardiovascular diseases, lung function disorders and lung cancer. Produced every year, 6 trillion cigarette butts are posing a serious threat to marine life by mixing toxic litter in the sea and oceans. It takes 10 years for a single cigarette butt to completely dissolve.

The cigarette butt from which cigarette smoke is filtered consists of cellulose acetate. During smoking, the gases emitted from tobacco passes through this filter into the mouth and the butts containing toxic gas are thrown into the nature.There had bee various studies and projects have been carried out in order to collect, recycle and reduce the harm to nature of cigarette butts all over the world. A group of researchers led by Abbas Mohajerani at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia ensured that butts were isolated using bitumen and paraffin wax to prevent toxic substances from leaking into the environmentThe isolated butts were mixed with hot asphalt mixture to obtain a concretey, dense and durable structure with low thermal conductivity. This compound was used on roads. In Brazil, under the leadership of Mark Poiato, a group of researchers produced paper from the sponge of butts. They separated the tar in the butts with the process by washing to reveal cellulose, which is the raw material of the paper.

In the state of the technique, international patent application W02007035749 discloses a method for recycling cigarette butts. Cigarette filters are separated from tobacco and chemicals are recycled.

In the europian patent application EP2520184 it is seen that the method of recycling the cellulosic filter portion of cigarette butts from chemicals.

Chinese patent application CN108807014 discloses a method of preparing a supercapacitor electrode material using disposed cigarette butts. This method comprises the steps of chopping the disposed cigarette butts, dipping the chopped cigarette butts into water, transferring the chopped cigarette butts to the high pressure reaction vessel for pre carbonization, and then centrifuging, washing and drying. The supercapacitor electrode material prepared using disposed cigarette butts has a porous structure, an oxygen-rich functional group, and an ultra high specific surface area and a high nitrogen dose, so high capacitance, good speed performance and ultra high cycle stability when the material is used as the supercapacitor electrode material it provides.

SUBSTITUTE SHEETS (RULE 26) As can be seen from the aforementioned patents, various studies and patents exist in the state of the art for the recycling of cigarette butts. However, the present methods are generally directed to converting the filter portion of the cigarette butt made of cellulose acetate. No studies or patents have been found in order to obtain high performance fuel by separating the cigarette tar contained in the filter.

Technical problems that the invention aims to solve

By recycling the cigarette butts, these toxic substances are removed from cigarette butts containing arsenic, cadmium, formaldehyde, acetone, butane, turpentine, propylene, glycol, lead, nickel, carbon monoxide, ammonia and many harmful substances to obtain high performance fuel and as a result of this, it is aimed to prevent damage to humans and other living organisms.

One of the advantages of the method according to the invention is that the average annual consumption of 6 trillion cigarettes consumed in the world causes harm to the atmosphere, as well as the non-biodegradable cellulose acetate-based and harmful heavy metal- containing cigarette butts, which emit into the sea, ocean, soil and groundwater after smoking which will reduce the damage.

Another advantage of the method according to the invention is that 17 thousand people and countless living creatures will be prevented from fires caused by cigarettes every year. In addition, cigarette-induced fires are known to cause financial losses of more than $ 27 billion per year, which will be reduced as the method is intended to collect cigarette butts.

Another advantage of the method according to the invention is the use of tar, turpentine, cellulosic acetate, propylene, acetophenone, ammonia, butane in cigarette butts in ethanol (ethyl alcohol) used as a fuel alone or as an additive mixed with gasoline in automobiles and other motor vehicles. By increasing the average heat that occurs when ethanol is burned by mixing flammable substances 2-4 times, an efficient fuel with high energy power will be formed.

Figures will be used to better understand the method of the invention.

SUBSTITUTE SHEETS (RULE 26) Explanation Of The Figures

Figure-1 : It shows a flowchart of an alternative embodiment of the recycling method of cigarette butts of the invention..

Figure-2: It shows a flowchart of another alternative embodiment of the recycling method of cigarette butts of the invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention

By the method of the invention, a fuel which will increase the energy efficiency of ethanol will be obtained by mixing with ethanol which can be used as an alternative fuel in automotive and industrial sector. In order to better understand the product in the method according to the invention, Figure- 1 and Figure-2 show the flowcharts of two different process steps that this product can undergo in the production method.

In the method according to the invention, two similar process flows will be mentioned. In one of these processes, cigarette butts are collected at the first stage and taken to the environment at 0-60°C temperature and put into water.A mixture of cigarette butts and water is mixed with mechanical or magnetic stirrers. After mixing, the mixture is filtered by means of a strainer or filters and boiled It is also possible to proceed directly to the boiling step of the mixture without filtration. Preferably, the filtered mixture is allowed to stand at 50-1 10 ° C for 1 -24 hoursAfter boiling, the mixture of cigarette tar and water is mixed with ethanol. In the other process , the collected cigarette butts are taken to a temperature of 0-60° C and placed in ethanol and mixed.. The mixture must be rest to settle the precipitates. The mixture is left to wait for 15 minutes and then it becomes ready for use after filtration.

A process in the recycling method of cigarette butts of the present invention is essentially comprised of;

- Collecting the cigarette butts (100)

- Putting cigarette butts into water (1 10)

- Mixing (120)

- Filtering the mixture (130)

SUBSTITUTE SHEETS (RULE 26) - Boiling the mixture (140)

- Adding mixture to ethanol (150)

These steps are explained in following part;

Collecting the cigarette butts (100): Cigarette butts are collected at this stageThe collection can be made by collecting cigarettes thrown into the environment or by creating smoking collection areas.

Putting cigarette butts into water (110): At this stage, the collected cigarette butts are placed in an environment with a temperature between 0-60°C and the amount of cigarette butts between 5 grams and 320 grams is put into 1 liter of water. Mixing (120): At this stage, the mixture of water and cigarette butts are mixed with a mechanical or magnetic stirrer. Mixing time is minimum 5 minutes and maximum 60 minutes.

Filtering the mixture (130): At this stage, the mixture of water and butts is filtered by filters and the water is purified from butts. Filtration can be carried out without applying pressure with the filter or by applying pressure from the micro filters.

Boiling the mixture (140): At this stage, tar water, separated from cigarette butts, is kept at 50-1 10°C for 1 -24 hours and this makes the water evaporated. The aim is to reduce the water content in the mixture and increase its densityAt this stage, the tar water heater can be heated or kept in a closed chamber or environment with a temperature of 50-1 10°C. Adding mixture to ethanol (150): At this stage, the mixture of cigarette tar and water is mixed with ethanol. This mixture, combined with ethanol, is ready to use. 1 liter of ethanol is used for the amount of 5-320 grams of the mixture of tar and water.

The process steps described above are one of the methods for mixing the substances in cigarette butts with ethanol and obtaining fuel. An alternative method of mixing the cigarette butts with ethanol may be applied in a similar manner.. The flowchart of the mentioned method is shown in Figure-2 and the process steps are as follows.

- Collecting the cigarette butts (200)

- Putting cigarette butts into ethanol (210)

- Mixing (220)

SUBSTITUTE SHEETS (RULE 26) - Waiting the mixture (230)

- Filtering the mixture (240)

These steps are explained in following part;

Collecting the cigarette butts (200): Cigarette butts are collected at this stageThe collection can be made by collecting cigarettes thrown into the environment or by creating smoking collection areas.

Putting cigarette butts into ethanol (210): At this stage, the collected cigarette butts are prepared in an environment with a temperature between 0-60°C and a butt-ethanol mixture with a density of 5-320 g / L is prepared.

Mixing (220): At this stage, the mixture of water, cigarette butts and ethanol is mixed with a mechanical or magnetic stirrer. Mixing time is minimum 5 and maximum 60 minutes.

Waiting the mixture (230): At this stage, after the mixing step (220), the mixture is allowed to stand for at least 15 minutes to settle the sediments in the mixture.

Filtering the mixture (240): At this stage, the mixture of water and butts is filtered by filters and the water is purified from butts. Filtration can be carried out without applying pressure with the filter or by applying pressure from the micro filters.

Industrial Application of the Invention

The fuel obtained by the method according to the invention can be used primarily as an alternative fuel in automobiles and other motor vehicles, as well as for use in machines in the industrial sector.

SUBSTITUTE SHEETS (RULE 26)