Research: Pig Manure Can Become Crude Oil

Yahoo ^ | 04/13/04 | JIM PAUL

[m1-lightning]

URBANA, Ill. - A University of Illinois research team is working on turning pig manure into a form of crude oil that could be refined to heat homes or generate electricity.

Years of research and fine-tuning are ahead before the idea could be commercially viable, but results so far indicate there might be big benefits for farmers and consumers, lead researcher Yanhui Zhang said.

"This is making more sense in terms of alternative energy or renewable energy and strategically for reducing our dependency on foreign oil," said Zhang, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering. "Definitely, there is potential in the long term."

The thermochemical conversion process uses intense heat and pressure to break down the molecular structure of manure into oil. It's much like the natural process that turns organic matter into oil over centuries, but in the laboratory the process can take as little as a half-hour.

A similar process is being used at a plant in Carthage, Mo., where tons of turkey entrails, feathers, fat and grease from a nearby Butterball turkey plant are converted into a light crude oil, said Julie DeYoung, a spokeswoman for Omaha, Neb.-based Conagra Foods, which operates the plant in a joint venture with Changing World Technologies of Long Island, N.Y.

Converting manure is sure to catch the attention of swine producers. Safe containment of livestock waste is costly for farmers, especially at large confinement operations where thousands of tons of manure are produced each year. Also, odors produced by swine farms have made them a nuisance to neighbors.

"If this ultimately becomes one of the silver bullets to help the industry, I'm absolutely in favor of it," said Jim Kaitschuk, executive director of the Illinois Pork Producers Association.

Zhang and his research team have found that converting manure into crude oil is possible in small batches, but much more research is needed to develop a continuously operating reaction chamber that could handle large amounts of manure. That is key to making the process practicable and economically viable.

Zhang predicted that one day a reactor the size of a home furnace could process the manure generated by 2,000 hogs at a cost of about $10 per barrel.

Big oil refineries are unlikely to purchase crude oil made from converted manure, Zhang said, because they aren't set up to refine it. But the oil could be used to fuel smaller electric or heating plants, or to make plastics, ink or asphalt, he said.

"Crude oil is our first raw material," he said. "If we can make it value-added, suddenly the whole economic picture becomes brighter."

Zhang's site: Zhang's site: http://www.age.uiuc.edu/faculty/yhz/index.htm

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

I like to cover my bases and use words like "most"! I encourage you to read the material on this process and see who is invested (ConAgra is the big partner, but some petro companies are also interested). I have a friend who worked for Monsanto at the time send me the first information I heard about this. He was impressed and he hates the "ethanol people". I figured, if he thought it had promise, it must be good chemistry.

When the plant went up in Carthage last year, it confirmed to me that this was probably going to be big since ConAgra was hooking it up to their own big commercial plant (Butterball Turkey) and not some small out of the way trial farm.

I just encourage people to read up on it and see for themselves.

[CedarDave]

The fact is that most of them are uneconomical outside of any government-funded laboratory setting. When you start adding in equipment costs, property taxes, interest, permits, maintenance costs, repairs, etc... like those of us in the real world have to do, most of them just aren't worth it.

That's where both economy of scale and efficiency come in. These aren't going to be built everywhere (except maybe on land a city already owns and is already used for their landfill or WWTP). However, if the process works and efficiency is high, they could easily pay for themselves in an area like Dodge City, Kansas where gigantic cattle feed lots generate equally gigantic piles of BS. And if it does generate usable quantities of oil and producing oil fields are nearby, crude oil pipelines can be used to transport it to refineries.

[L.N. Smithee]

Greenpeace is very pro windpower.

They should be. Their spokespeople generates a whole lot of it.

[L.N. Smithee]

The irony of the possibility of destroying Islam's economy by using the feces of one of its most reviled animals is outstanding.

Well, I think we may have found the perfect execution for Muslim terrorists -- death in the porcine gas chamber!!!

[Sam the Sham]

The insiders are already there and have taken the best seats. That tells you something. The kind of people who if you scam them, you will have an untimely heart attack or a sudden compulsion to go moonlight swimming in the middle of the ocean.

What excites me about this is that this could do for the Northeast and Midwest what the invention of air conditioning did for the Sunbelt.

[Dark Knight]

I just read something that reminded me of one of the other benefits of the Changing World Tech program. This is there military calling card of intent. The oil is mostly a side benefit. They want to address the nasty chemicals like PCB's and other organics that play heck with disposition strategies.

"Changing World Technologies Inc. (CWT) identifies emerging technologies that address specific needs and problems in the energy and environmental arenas.

Our cornerstone technology known as the Thermo Depolymerization and Chemical Reformer Process ("TDP") can convert even the most difficult wastes and organic materials into naturally occurring chemical compounds (natural resources). The "TDP" technology converts all organic and inorganic waste streams into high quality marketable end products. The process utilizes basic physics, chemistry, and technology in a completely enclosed circulating system emulating a naturally occurring process. The TDP duplicates the earth’s natural process at subduction zones using only water, temperature, and pressure to chemically reform the material.

Thermo-Depolymerization and Chemical Reformer

All organic waste is transformed into useful resources
Oils - To be sold to fuel blenders or used on site
Gases - To be used to make electricity
Carbons - To be sold as fuel or activated carbon
MISSION:

To provide energy and environmental solutions for all military facilities anywhere organic material is produced.

All branches of the military
Troop Bivouacking
Military bases and ships
Logistic field support for advancing troops
Mobile or remote units such as radar installations
All remediation or demilitarization efforts
BENEFITS:

No ocean dumping (maritime laws)
Additional storage for supplies, weapons, equipment, ammunition
Fuels produced (diesel, methane) for immediate use
Reliable supply to meet base power needs
Logistics’ benefit (clean-up sites, movements free of evidence, protect soldiers & sailors)
Personal protection, pollution free environment
Readiness – ensures responsiveness, doing military tasks not waste related tasks
Modernization – maintains leadership in development and use of new technology
Converts any organic feed including mixed plastics which allows purchasing of materials on RFP’s, to what is needed, not what can be disposed of. "

Fascinating aspect, in addition to the oil!

DK

[BOBTHENAILER]

No, this isn't a scam.

Makes me wanna say "Hey there little Red Riding Hood". Just kidding.

I'm not kidding about my belief in somebody, somehow, someway, creating energy any other way than good ol' God given coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear.

WITHOUT SUBSIDIES, the investment road is littered, as Gramps put it, with all the solar, wind, landfill, ethanol, oilshale (billion $ loser for Exxon), tar sand (loser in Canada at below $30 crude),fecal scams known to man.

Despite the clout of the people you refer to, this thing does not DEFY the laws of physics. Given the clout, political muscle and huge subsidies absolutely necessary, you might have a WINNER, BUT we're ALL GONNA pay TO MAKE IT WORK. My money stays in oil & gas. I know that works.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

It would be exquisitely IRONIC if the wacky Middle Eastern oligarchs are finally defeated by...pig crap.

Where can I buy some shares and futures on barrels of pig sh#t crude???

And what about horse, sheep, goat, and chicken sh#t? Does that work as well?

[SedVictaCatoni]

I'm not kidding about my belief in somebody, somehow, someway, creating energy any other way than good ol' God given coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear.

Great, then you should like this process. They take God-given animal guts and plants. And then they boil them to create oil. And then they refine that to produce gasoline.

The usual way is to take God-given animal guts and plants. And then reduce them slowly over a period of millions of years. And then they refine that to produce gasoline. This process speeds it up a bit.

This isn't geothermal, solar, tide power, windmills, french fry grease, or any other kind of "alternate energy". It's oil.

It's hillarious to watch the usually pro-entrepreneurship Freepers screaming about how this must be a trick by the Democrats or the Freemasons or the Martians or something. Some genius has figured out a way to convert one kind of carbon (animal tissue) into another (crude oil), just like somebody once figured out a way to convert one kind of carbon (crude oil) into another (gasoline). But, no, this kind of engineering and hard work is suspect somehow.

[TheLion]

Well, you can believe it. By the time everybody believes it, it will be too late to buy the stock....assuming they ever go public.

The only downside I can find so far in this process is that it sounds to good to be true.....not really a downside.

[Conservative4Ever]

When pigs fly.....then again...maybe.

Red

[TheLion]

What I like about this process, is that it actually has a chance!

Companies like Exxon, etc can't complain because they can get oil cheap. Waste disposal companies can't complain because they will have an easy place to get rid of their waste.

All industry, except atomic, will have incentive to get this moving because of waste removal.

[FourPeas]

It's an absolutely hog wild idea.

[Dark Knight]

>>...it sounds to good to be true<<

So is this where our BS detectors go off?

DK

[searchandrecovery]

The guy who discovers how to train pigs to use little toilets is gonna clean up.

[TheLion]

"So is this where our BS detectors go off?"

For many yes, but that has nothing to do with the process.
Assuming the process works, can you think of a downside?

[timydnuc]

I thought of the irony as well. To think that the animal that the Muslims most despise could be their actual downfall. Yes, Virginia there is a God, and He has a great sense of humor.

[Dark Knight]

I think think this is one of those revolutionary things that will change our world view. $7/barrel oil from waste, garbage into oil, landfills as a resource for energy, nasty organic disposals (and this may include places like our chem weapons depots that are an accident waiting to happen), sewage into oil that list is long.

But if we had a resource that could supply the US with 25% of our energy needs at $7 per barrel, what would that do to OPEC? How about 50%? And it would not be just us, any country that has organic waste of any kind, like Japan or Israel. If the OPEC market went to 40% of it's current clients, what would they do?

DK

[TheLion]

"If the OPEC market went to 40% of it's current clients, what would they do?"

For all I care, they can go back to riding camels!

[Future Useless Eater]

good idea,

ALL aliens, illegal or not must live in pig-manure
heated homes until they become naturalized citizens.