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Research: Pig Manure Can Become Crude Oil
Yahoo ^ | 04/13/04 | JIM PAUL

Posted on 04/13/2004 10:24:01 AM PDT by 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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Illinois; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: crude; crudeoil; economy; manure; oil; pig; pigmanure; pigs; recycle; science
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To: biblewonk
WINDPOWERCONS.COM


41 posted on 04/13/2004 10:53:38 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist (EEE)
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To: Blood of Tyrants
And where do we get fire?
42 posted on 04/13/2004 10:54:20 AM PDT by Warren (Or)
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To: SierraWasp
I take it that you didn't do very well in Bio-Chemistry while in college.

Believe, or disbelieve .... there were those who don't believe in electricty, nuclear fission, superconductors, genetics and indoor plumbing either.
43 posted on 04/13/2004 10:54:43 AM PDT by Hodar (With Rights, comes Responsibilities. Don't assume one, without assuming the other.)
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To: m1-lightning
think of all the petro fuel we can cinvert after melting down all the pigs in the demokRATic party!! The ME will go broke!!
44 posted on 04/13/2004 10:54:49 AM PDT by God luvs America (Support Our Troops....Don't vote for Kerry!)
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To: biblewonk
Kerry, accordingly, has proposed "a new Manhattan Project to make America independent of Middle East oil." In January, he explained part of the plan in Vinton, Iowa. "I'm setting a goal for America," he said. "By the year 2020, 20 percent of our electricity is going to be produced by alternative and renewable fuels. And a lot of that is going to come out of Iowa." Listing ways to improve the "quality of life of the rural community," Kerry said: "Wind farms, obviously, is one other thing." But, it turns out, not for Nantucket. Source
45 posted on 04/13/2004 10:55:44 AM PDT by m1-lightning (God, Guns, and Country!)
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To: NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
check it out!
46 posted on 04/13/2004 10:56:03 AM PDT by Lady Composer
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To: biblewonk
I always appreciate energy threads so I can remind everyone that, we need more windmills. Lots of windmills.

You trying to slow the earth's rotation down? ;-)

SD

47 posted on 04/13/2004 10:56:25 AM PDT by SoothingDave
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To: m1-lightning
Dr. Yanhui Zhang demonstrates the properties of raw oil created from hog manure at his lab at the University of Illinois in Urbana,  Ill., Wednesday,  April 7, 2004. Zhang's research group has perfected a continuous thermochemical conversion process that uses intense heat and pressure to break down the molecular structure of manure into a form of crude oil. (AP Photo/Tom Roberts)

Dr. Yanhui Zhang demonstrates the properties of raw oil created from hog manure at his lab at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Ill., Wednesday, April 7, 2004. Zhang's research group has perfected a continuous thermochemical conversion process that uses intense heat and pressure to break down the molecular structure of manure into a form of crude oil. (AP Photo/Tom Roberts)


48 posted on 04/13/2004 10:57:51 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi Mac ... Become a FR Monthly Donor ... Kerry thread archive @ /~normsrevenge)
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To: God luvs America
think of all the petro fuel we can cinvert after melting down all the pigs in the demokRATic party!! The ME will go broke!!

I prefer to think of the oil we will not longer be forced to buy from those who want to kill us. We can drive our gas guzzling cars, make our own crude at $10/barrel and tell the Arabs to eat sand. This will be the collapse of everything they have known. Bwwaaaa-haaaa-haaaaa

49 posted on 04/13/2004 10:58:03 AM PDT by Hodar (With Rights, comes Responsibilities. Don't assume one, without assuming the other.)
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To: Hodar
I'm curious about what materials this process works on.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we could easily grow (and harvest and convert to oil) literally millions of tons of cottonwood trees, which have no economic value at all, otherwise.
50 posted on 04/13/2004 10:58:51 AM PDT by djf
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To: m1-lightning
It's the first thing that came to mind when I read the headline. Course, the PETA crowd will have fits about it too. Nuttin like irritating the er, crap outta all of the right people.
51 posted on 04/13/2004 10:59:18 AM PDT by GoLightly
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To: Gulf War One
ROTFLOL
52 posted on 04/13/2004 10:59:46 AM PDT by Libertina
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To: ServesURight
Have you ever seen the big windmills that are about 60-80 meters in diameter? You seem to be behind the times a little.
53 posted on 04/13/2004 11:00:17 AM PDT by biblewonk (The only book worth reading, and reading, and reading.)
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To: SierraWasp
Hey, don't you work for Enron?
54 posted on 04/13/2004 11:00:38 AM PDT by m1-lightning (God, Guns, and Country!)
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To: SoothingDave
You trying to slow the earth's rotation down? ;-)

They actually blamed windmills on a drought in India and got people thinking they were changing the weather.

55 posted on 04/13/2004 11:01:08 AM PDT by biblewonk (The only book worth reading, and reading, and reading.)
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To: Dark Knight
Do you have a citation on the study or report that you refer to. From a cursory position this sounds too efficient unless I am missing something. It would seem to me that using the methane directly would be more efficient. How much additional organic material is converted to fuel after the process of methane production? Can methane production be enhanced? Interesting, nevertheless.
56 posted on 04/13/2004 11:04:54 AM PDT by Final Authority
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To: Ditto
Now this WILL strong-arm OPEC, especially if put into wide use. Monopolies and cartels despise nothing more than they abhor competition. So we should expedite this research--and open ANWR to oil drilling. Good news on the oil-drilling front also comes from Tennessee and Oklahoma.
57 posted on 04/13/2004 11:05:43 AM PDT by dufekin (Eliminate genocidal terrorist military dictator Kim Jong Il ASAP)
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To: Hodar
We can drive our gas guzzling cars, make our own crude at $10/barrel and tell the Arabs to eat sand. This will be the collapse of everything they have known. Bwwaaaa-haaaa-haaaaa

Agreed. Isn't the idea of telling the Arabs to stick their oil where the sun don't shine a delicious thought? Puts a smile right on my face every time I think about it....

LQ

58 posted on 04/13/2004 11:07:45 AM PDT by LizardQueen
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To: djf
Changing World Techologies had a really good article published in Discover magazine a while back. My previous posts linked to that article.

The process is also known as Thermal De-polymerization, which uses heat and pressure to do to organtics as mother nature does; but instead of taking millions of years, it takes a few hours.

You can get various weights of oil from just about anything. For example, burn PVC and you get some known cancerous agents. But use TDP, and you get light crude, hydrochloric acid (usefull industrial grade product) and some water. Tires will produce heavy crude. Just about anything living, creates hydrocarbons (plants or animals), which can be used as well as reclaiming some wastes.

Just from using this process to eliminate Beef, chicken, pork and lamb offal; we can replace over 80% of our foreign energy needs. Plus, the claim is that we can make this stuff at a cost of about $10-15/barrel; as opposed to buying it at $30. So, cheap gasoline may be on it's way back.
59 posted on 04/13/2004 11:07:59 AM PDT by Hodar (With Rights, comes Responsibilities. Don't assume one, without assuming the other.)
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To: 50sDad
The only limiting factors, are Greenpeace complaints that they shred birds, and the fact you can't build them within site of land owned by the Kennedys or other "Limousine Liberals".

Greenpeace is very pro windpower. Don't take that the wrong way though, windpower is still a good thing inspite of some of the people who like them. Kennedy makes me sick for a lot of reasons not the least of which is his hypocracy in renewable energy. The windmills they want to build would be miles away from his pretty little view and would produce a 1000 gwhr/yr of power. It would be the first step in offshore windpower in the USA and for GE's new windmill the 3.6 mw unit with 104 meter blades. Kennedy just sucks.

60 posted on 04/13/2004 11:08:48 AM PDT by biblewonk (The only book worth reading, and reading, and reading.)
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