Petroleum age is just beginning

Washington Times ^ | 8/15/03 | David Deming

[eno_]

I have not read The Deep Hot Biosphere and it could, of course, be total quackery. But microbes do live under the sea under incredible pressures and in termperatures, like 120C, that would readily sterilize anything on dry land.

[my right]

You know as a child I never did buy that BS that all those dinosaurs died and just soaked into the ground and turned into oil. Still don't buy it.

[El Gato]

D.) Nobody really knows the answer.

You win the qewpi doll.

[El Gato]

It's very difficult to synthesize all of the complex organic molecules that make up petroleum from simple CO2.

Methane isn't CO2, it's CH4. CO2 is, as it says, Carbon DiOxide.

[El Gato]

Not that the Indians didn't have their good points, but they were most definitely not the "noble savages" the PC crowd and the Indian activists make them out to be

And to make blanket statements about how "Indians" were before the Europeans came is pretty silly. There was lots of variation. From near stone age hunter gathers, to agriculuralists. From very loose tribes made up of still smaller family groups, to large Confederacies with governmental structures nearly as sophisiticated as anything in Europe.

The one thing they had in common is that they never had an industrial revolution, and were pretty low tech.

[Straight Vermonter]

Here is a relevant article on the subject for those (like me) who had no clue what you are bickering over.

[philman_36]

The seminal event that transformed the United States into an industrial and technological powerhouse occurred on the morning of Jan. 10, 1901, near Beaumont, Texas.
Black gold! Welcome to "The Golden Triangle"!

[tpaine]

Thanks. That interview pretty well settles the 'crank' issue. Wired Mag asked the tough questions, and Gold handled himself well.
His remarks about the politics of oil & its production were spot on as to why some people have such a vested interest in denigrating his position.

[foreverfree]

bump

[ckilmer]

I read an amazing article about the latest upgrade in biomass conversion. This is dull stuff except that the newest generation technology brings the cost of converting sewage, municipal garbage, industrial and agricultural waste -- to oil down to $15@barrel. They do it by imitating and accelerating the process in the earth that by heat and pressure breaks down carbon compounds and converts any carbon based substance to oil. They say with some tweaking and economies of scale--they can do it for $8-12@barrel. According to the article, agriculture wastes alone would produce 4 billion barrels of oil annually. The US imported 4.2 billion barrels of oil in 2001. Put these biomass converters around every city in the US and then use the oil make electricity and voilla--you have a distributed power generation network.

Sound too good to be true? Read the article and look at the people and agencies in the government, business and scientific establishment who have put their names behind it.
http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/940151.asp?0sl=-42
Here's a couple more articles on the same subject
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
This is the company website
http://www.changingworldtech.com/techfr.htm
Here's a press release from the website:
West Hempstead, NY, April 8, 2003 – Changing World Technologies, Inc. announces the first commercially successful application of thermal technology to convert organic waste into clean energy. Building on scientific research dating to the 1920s and human history extending from the Stone Age, CWT has patented, tested and deployed a technological process that has been awarded $12 million in grants from the US government and produced a joint venture with ConAgra Foods, Inc.

Utilizing low-value waste by-products such as tires, plastics, municipal sewage sludge, paper, animal and agricultural refuse as feedstocks, CWT's thermal technology provides a commercially viable solution for some of the earth’s gravest environmental challenges, including arresting global warming by reducing the use of fossil fuels, and reforming organic waste into a high-value resource. In addition, it has the potential to substantially reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

“If the process works as well as its creators claim, not only would most toxic waste problems become history, so would imported oil,” says Discover magazine, which features a full-length article on CWT's thermal process in the May 2003 issue.

“From the point of view of pollution and the point of view of energy production, this is a remarkable story. This technology offers all of us an opportunity someday to have a more peaceful and a freer world, a world that is not dependent on turbulence and chaos,” said R. James Woolsey, former Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency and a senior advisor to CWT.

Cornerstone Technology
Where earlier attempts at thermal conversion failed, CWT’s thermal process succeeds in breaking down long chains of organic polymers into their smallest units and reforming them into new combinations to produce clean solid, liquid and gaseous alternative fuels and specialty chemicals.

The conversion process emulates the earth’s natural geothermal activity, whereby organic material is converted into fossil fuel under conditions of extreme heat and pressure over millions of years. The cornerstone technology, called Thermal Depolymerization Process or TDP, mimics the earth’s system by using pipes and controlling temperature and pressure to reduce the bio-remediation process from millions of years to mere hours.

The process entails five steps:
(1) Pulping and slurrying the organic feed with water.
(2) Heating the slurry under pressure to the desired temperature.
(3) Flashing the slurry to a lower pressure to separate the mixture.
(4) Heating the slurry again (coking) to drive off water and produce light hydrocarbons.
(5) Separating the end products.

TDP is 85% energy efficient. The process has very low Btu requirements, due to the short residence times of materials at each stage and to the holding of water under pressure.
In addition, it generates its own energy, utilizes recycled water throughout, and uses the steam naturally created by the process to heat incoming feedstock, thereby recapturing expended energy. In addition, TDP produces no uncontrollable emissions and no secondary hazardous waste streams.

"This is not an incremental change. This is a big, new step," said Alf Andreassen, a principal of Paladin Capital Group and former Technical Advisor for Naval Warfare and Science Advisor to President George Bush. "In Europe, there are mountains of bones piling up" due to new

regulations for handling bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, he says. "When recycling waste into feed stops in this country, it will change everything."

Plant Commercialization
To test and refine the technology, CWT established a Research & Development plant at the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Naval Yard in partnership with the Gas Research Institute, which opened in December 1999. There the company successfully applied its thermal conversion process to a range of feedstocks, including animal waste, tires, mixed plastics and paper.

“This project and the work that Changing World Technologies is doing in Philadelphia will revolutionize the way we deal with waste products on a broad commercial scale, the production of energy, and the reduction or elimination of waste by-products which enhances economic development… improving air quality, our quality of life as well as our environment,” says Denise Chamberlain, former Deputy Secretary for Air, Recycling & Radiation Protection for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

"The Environmental Protection Agency doesn't even consider us waste handlers. We are permitted as manufacturers. Our process has undergone the scrutiny of an Environmental Assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and received a Finding of No Significant Impact, or FONSI,” said Brian Appel, CWT Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "This process changes the whole industrial equation. Waste goes from a cost to a profit."

ConAgra Foods was one of the first enterprises to express early interest in the commercial application of CWT's thermal process. A joint venture between the companies was entered into in December 2000 for the first commercial application of the technology for the conversion of poultry offal at one of ConAgra's large Butterball Turkey plants. When it is commissioned later this month, the $20 million facility in Carthage, Missouri -- funded in part by a $5 million
grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency -- will process 200 tons per day of fats, bones, feathers, grease and oils.

“If the technology is successful, it could offer enormous opportunities to address farm waste problems in the Midwest. It could be applied to all sorts of other wastes. This looks extremely positive,” said William Rice, EPA Acting Regional Administrator.

According to Howard Buffett, who represents ConAgra's investment, "We've got a lot of confidence in this… We wouldn't be doing this if we didn't anticipate success."

“This is a remarkable opportunity to use new technology to turn a troublesome liability – waste – into a valuable asset – renewable energy,” said Senator Christopher (Kit) Bond of Missouri, when construction of the Carthage plant first began.

About CWT
Mr. Appel, formerly a principal of Atlantis International and Ticket World USA, has assembled a team of high level scientists, technologists and former government officials to lead the commercialization of CWT’s thermal process and related technologies. They include Alan L. Libshutz, President & Chief Operating Officer, a former Managing Director of the energy and finance groups at Salomon Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns; Franklin D. Kramer, Executive Vice President, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs; Terry N. Adams, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer, a specialist in heat transfer, fluid flow and combustion and a former Technical Advisor to Weyerhaeuser R&D; James H. Freiss, PE, Vice President of Engineering, an agricultural engineer who was previously Director of Environmental Affairs for ContiGroup Companies, Inc.; and William Lange, Director of Engineering, an accomplished electromechanical, mechanical, electronics circuitry, and electromagnetic design specialist.


CWT is a holding company dedicated to identifying emerging technologies that address specific energy and environmental needs, and then developing them into viable business opportunities. It is currently commercializing its patented thermal technology, which converts hydrocarbons and organic materials into clean fuels and specialty chemicals. Founded in 1997, CWT’s subsidiaries and affiliated companies include Resource Recovery Corporation, Inc.; Thermo- Depolymerization Process, LLC; and Renewable Environmental Solutions, LLC, a joint venture with ConAgra Foods, Inc. established as the exclusive vehicle to apply CWT’s processes in the global agricultural sector.

For more information, visit CWT at www.changingworldtech.com or call (516) 486-0100.

Contact:
Julie Gross Gelfand
CWT Press Office
(516) 536-7258
jgelfand@hldcreative.com

[Cincinatus]

I know that. You could synthesize organic molecules with CO2 and water. Go ahead and show us all how it's done.

[Cincinatus]

Thanks for the link. You might want to temper this rather credulous piece with another by Martin Gardner in an article in his book The New Age: Notes of a Fringe-Watcher called "The Unorthodox Conjectures of Tommy Gold", which is a reprint of a piece orginally in the Skeptical Inquirer. Gold relishes his reputation as a scientifc "maverick" but is less than honest in dealing with his previous mis-calls.

I note in particular this passage from the piece you linked:

Since the oil crisis of the 1970s, Gold has been saying that the Earth is hugely well endowed with these hydrocarbons - hundreds of times more so than most geologists, or oil companies, or OPEC leaders believe. The general belief in scarcity that drives up gas prices and causes fears of inflation, Gold argues, is a mirage that has served vested interests among oil producers for decades.

This passage explains the attraction Gold holds for many of the paranoid-conspiracy mongering types (that frequent this web site, as you may have noted) -- it's all a sinister plot of Big Business and he's being persecuted for speaking the truth by the scientific "establishment."

Riddle me this: If Gold is correct about abiotic petroleum, there's clearly a fortune to be made exploiting his ideas. Who's doing it? Who's investing huge amounts of capital into Gold's ideas and models? This is the perfect chance to break "Big Oil" and establish a new financial dynasty for some risk-takers -- where are they?

[Rodney King]

Gold differs, -- with an interesting theory that many have accepted, and are using to drill deep, putting their money on the line. Why call him a 'crank'? What's your 'bone of contention'?

Who is drilling deep on Gold's theory? Sure, companies drill deep based on seismic data, but I can assure you that there are no companies just drilling deep on the theory that Gold may be right and there is oil all over the place down there.

[tpaine]

Gold differs, -- with an interesting theory that many have accepted, and are using to drill deep, putting their money on the line. Why call him a 'crank'?
What's your 'bone of contention'?

Who is drilling deep on Gold's theory?

Read the link at 46, and refute Golds contentions. I have no special knowledge, other than reading his book & articles etc, like these.

Sure, companies drill deep based on seismic data, but I can assure you that there are no companies just drilling deep on the theory that Gold may be right and there is oil all over the place down there.

Yep, you and Cincy are just calmly 'assuring' all us "paranoid-conspiracy mongering types (that frequent this web site, as you may have noted) -- it's all a sinister plot of Big Business and he's being persecuted for speaking the truth by the scientific "establishment."

To me, the above sounds a lot like the paranoid ranting of one of the politically correct mongering types that frequent this web site. --- Who insist that the dictates of the conventional wisdom of the day must be obeyed.
-- So go figure why some here have such a bone on about the issue.
I sure don't.

[tpaine]

Gold differs, -- with an interesting theory that many have accepted, and are using to drill deep, putting their money on the line. Why call him a 'crank'?
What's your 'bone of contention'?

Who is drilling deep on Gold's theory?

Read the link at 46, and refute Golds contentions. I have no special knowledge, other than reading his book & articles etc, like these.

Sure, companies drill deep based on seismic data, but I can assure you that there are no companies just drilling deep on the theory that Gold may be right and there is oil all over the place down there.

Yep, you and Cincy are just calmly 'assuring' all us "paranoid-conspiracy mongering types (that frequent this web site, as you may have noted) -- it's all a sinister plot of Big Business and he's being persecuted for speaking the truth by the scientific "establishment."

To me, the above sounds a lot like the paranoid ranting of one of the politically correct mongering types that frequent this web site. --- Who insist that the dictates of the conventional wisdom of the day must be obeyed.
-- So go figure why some here have such a bone on about the issue.
I sure don't.

[Rodney King]

I'm perfectly open minded on the issue as a whole. However, I have pretty good knowledge of oil drilling, and I can tell you that the vague reference to some Russian drilling notwithstanding, the E&P companies are not expending the resources on this theory.

[editor-surveyor]

"In 1890, only 5 percent of the eligible population attended high school."

And yet, the average American at that time was twice as literate as the average BA grad is today!

Great article, thanks!

[editor-surveyor]

"Methane is a common non biological substance on earth, correct?"

Strange statement!

Sewage treatment plants have to deal with tons of methane produced in biological decay every day. What is your definition of 'non-biological?'

[editor-surveyor]

"sometimes they slide beneath each other (creating trenches, like the Marianas in the Pacific)"

Current tectonic theory holds that the trenches are created by plates receding from each other, not by colliding. The best known place where one plate is being forced under the other is the northwest coast of the U.S. from Gualala to Juneau. This is the engine that fires the Cascades (as in Mount St. Helens)

[SamAdams76]

In case it's escaped your notice, we don't happen to live on any of those.

Yeah, but we could always run out a pipeline.