How lime helps clean toxic incinerator smoke

A closer look

Burning thousands of tons of garbage generates exhaust so toxic it would dissolve your lungs. To prevent acidic destruction of the atmosphere, these industrial furnaces pass the black smoke through massive chemical scrubbers. They spray a slurry of water and alkaline lime into the exhaust, which violently reacts with the toxic sulfur and acids, neutralizing them into harmless heavy salts before they hit the smokestack.