Re:Microplastics found in the placentas of human fetuses
by XorNot on Tuesday December 22, 2020 @10:52AM
(#25507470)
Gasoline is not substituted with ethanol. It's a combination of improved engine design and non-lead additives to provide the necessary anti-detonation properties.
Re:Microplastics found in the placentas of human fetuses
by Frost1x on Tuesday December 22, 2020 @12:07PM
(#25508498)
I meant ethanol as one of the substitutes for lead (previously a common additive) in gasoline which was often used before to better control compression and combustion. Are microplastics or plastics used to better control combusion engines now?
Re:Microplastics found in the placentas of human fetuses
by XorNot on Tuesday December 22, 2020 @12:50PM
(#25509026)
I meant ethanol was not substituted for lead AFAIK - the lead was replaced with MTBE in practice, and then the story of ethanol blending has more to do with CO2 emissions reduction (or in the case of Australia, a conservative prime minister somehow getting away with a levy on milk to bail out his mate's ethanol plant and mandating 10% blending in fuel at the pumps).
Ethanol was the original anti knock agent, but afaik was actually replaced by tetraethyl lead originally.
Pipes I'm quite familiar with (lead/PVC). It's my understanding gas tends to use ethanol as a substitute, not plastics? No clue about paint. It's also my understanding the vast majority of microplastics found are for plastics designed to be small (e.g. micro beads in soaps) and clothing (e.g. polyester material strands) and not from fragments of larger plastic components (e.g. PVC pipes).