Anything into Oil (Change trash & sewage to oil for $15@barrel)

DISCOVER Vol. 24 No. 5 ^ | May 2003 | Brad Lemley

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The future belongs to the frugal.

[ckilmer]

Here's a quote from an article on the BioMass conversion company called Changing World Technologies. This is the company that can change sewage, municipal trash, industrial & agricultural wastes to oil for $15@barrel. Who are the backers and how is the company being funded?

This is not being funded by some eccentric billionaire. The impressive results from the Philadelphia plant convinced the US environmental protection agency to put up $14.5m (£9m) to fund four more plants, while private investors are backing the Missouri plant to the tune of $40m (£25m). The company, Changing World Technologies, has also acquired such powerful friends as James Woolsey, former CIA director, and Alf Andreassen, former science adviser to George Bush. It's worth mentioning such well-connected backers because, says chief executive officer Brian Appel: "When people first hear about us they always say they don't believe it."
http://www.sovereignty.org.uk/features/footnmouth/zwaste2.html

There are immense implications to this technology. Not only would you clean up waste and give energy independence to the USA but this technology could yield a distributed energy system. You could site an electrical power generation plant at the garbage dump of every city. This might help solve some grid and financial problems in California and New York for starters.

There's more.
"You are not only cleaning up waste: you are talking about the distributed generation of oil all over the world" says Michael Roberts, an engineer with the Gas Technology Institute.
http://www.sovereignty.org.uk/features/footnmouth/zwaste2.html
Having won energy independence for the US-- this technolgy could win energy indendence for the rest of the world.

I live in an upper middle class neighborhood in a suburb outside of Washington DC. Every year more and more of the upper middle class from ailing cities in south and central America, the middle and far east buy houses and settle my neighborhood. Their home cities are disfunctional--on a scale that dwarfs the problems of California and New York. But what would happen if all the trash & sewage of those ailing cities were turned to oil? I think more money would be available for those muncipalities. This might improve their financial health.

Here's a couple more articles on the same subject. Might be appropriate to pass this around.
http://www.discover.com/may_03/gthere.html?article=featoil.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030717/energy_garbage_1.html
http://www.mindfully.org/Air/2003/Burn-Turkey-Waste-Energy16may03.htm
http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/940151.asp?0sl=-42
http://www.matr.net/article-6837.html
http://www.spiritofmaat.com/announce/newoil.htm
http://www.petroretail.net/fon/2003/0306/0306nt.asp
This is the company website
http://www.changingworldtech.com/techfr.htm

[arete]

Later read.

[Sacajaweau]

Does that mean no more turkey bologna??

[Bikers4Bush]

Bump for later.

[BallandPowder]

Powder..Patch..Ball FIRE!

There was an article here a cople of months ago about this technology with some pictures.. Don't have time to look for it now..

[ClearCase_guy]

"Step right up Ladeeees and Gentlemen! I have here a machine -- a miraculous machine! It will take your garbage, your sewage, your turkey renderings -- yes, my friends, I said your turkey renderings! And it will transform -- through the miracle of science -- all of that into oil. Petroleum! As good as the oil made by God himself! And how much will it cost, you ask? Why, my friends, technology such as this is priceless! But on this day -- this very day! I will charge you the mere sum of a dollar!"

[ckilmer]

All accounts suggest this stuff ain't snake oil.

[Iowa Granny]

thank you for posting this ckilmer.

CGG: An interesting read.

[WileyC]

Ingenious. I've thought for YEARS (around 25, but who's counting?) that waste products could be reduced by better methods than composting or incineration (although incineration is much better for the environment than landfilling or recycling).

It reminds me of a major chemical company I visited in Japan. When they were starting out, they were actually a mining company that produced enormous amounts of waste acid as part of their mining operation. One clever fellow decided that there must be some use for the stuff and began marketing it rather than throwing it in the ocean. It was so profitable that today they do a lot of chemistry and no mining at all.

Following the same pattern, there have been waste brokers (at least in the US) that sniff around for what one company throws away in case some other company would be willing to pay for it. It's a niche field, to be sure, but worth quite a bit of money if you can hook up with the right businesses.

I had theorized that some very high tech method would eventually be employed for organic wastes (y'know, genetically engineered organisms and nano-scale catalysts). Who would've thought that just cooking the stuff was all that was needed?

[KellyAdmirer]

If a 175-pound man fell into one end, he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water.

Next step Soylent Green. "I am a human being!"

[AFreeBird]

B4L8r

[vin-one]

I guess my first questions is, does it really do that
and can I have one in my back yard........

[DeFault User]

Thank goodness somebody found a use for turkey offal besides making cheap, fowl tasting sausage.

I hope this isn't another 'cold fusion' type technology.

[Johnbalaya]

this news has been around for a few months now...looks legitimate so far..gobble gobble

[Space Wrangler]

TN Chemical Company in Copper Hill, TN does the exact same thing. For years they literally raped the environment mining copper in the TN mtns, until someone discovered that the by-products they were ruining the land with was actually worth more than the copper they were mining. The area is just now starting to make a comeback. This area was so degraded by the mining, that the lack of vegetation could literally be seen from space. A big red-mud colored splotch showed up pretty good in the otehrwise lush TN Valley. Now only enough copper is mined to get the desired amount of chemicals that they need.

[linear]

Can someone with a chem engineering background comment on this? It reminds me of Segway, lots of flash, no substance. But, you never know...

[expatpat]

I don't know how cost-effective it is, but I believe this is the wave of the future. However, if it's a long way from cost-competitive, that future will be pretty distant.

[ckilmer]

Segway is a real product that does real stuff. Trouble is it doesn't fill a real need.

Can't speak to the tech either on the Segway or on the biomass converter here. But it might be appropriate to pay attention to the people and institutions who have put their money and their reputations behind it.