Posted on 06/15/2004 8:29:27 PM PDT by ckilmer
I stopped in at the Carthage plant last fall hoping to get a tour but they were still trying to get the guts of the process working properly. Looks like they are up and running now.
I only worry about the waist when I eat too much chocolate ice cream...Nuclear waste on the other hand can be handled by many newer methods
Let us tout any boondoggle and waste subsidies upon it. Anything rather than actually do something. Such leadership for over 30 years not in Washington. Reagan's truest words: "Washington doesn't solve problems, it subsidizes them." Just take a look at ADM and their patrons such as Senator Bond.
You are very right, and if this process was just for turkey guts, it would be on target.
It can be used (so they say) for any organic material. Used baby diapers, computer boards, sewage, yard waste, tires, plastics, or anything.
Because of the process temperatures, bacterial or viral contamination is nonexistant (the temperature breaks down all organic material). Sewage into oil. Old tires into oil. Medical waste into oil. Paper into oil. Etcetera, etcetera and of course etcetera.
The belief of the creators of the technology is a barrel production cost of possibly $7 at full scale production. If the Saudis want to have gas at $0.10 per gallon, cool. And if they put it up over $0.35 we can renegotiate by putting more sewers online...
Competition, it is the best way.
DK
bump
But what's the total cost by the time it reaches the US? (Add in shipping costs, etc.)
These plants also serve a dual-purpose. They are producing energy stocks (and refined mineals) from waste products, but just as importantly, they are eliminating waste products that would otherwise be clogging up landfills. They still serve a reasonable economic purpose beyond oil production.
The belief of the creators of the technology is a barrel production cost of possibly $7 at full scale production.
It will never happen - this is just a scam to extract money from the credulous.
And THAT, sir, is how it should be sold!
Neither will heavier than air flight. Best to abandon any hope of it now before we invest too much time and effort.
It's a good thing, but it's important to recognize that this is basically a way to increase the efficiency of fuel consumption.
Energy production -- on some scale -- could probably use vast fields of plants to collect sunlight. However, I'm not sure that the energy balance would be economically attractive.
You think this half witted comment is some sort of argument in favor of the oil from garbage myth?
>>either will heavier than air flight. Best to abandon any hope of it now before we invest too much time and effort.<<
Reminds me of some gems...
"I think there is a world market for maybe Five Computers." -- Thomas W. Watson, Chairman IBM, 1943
"There is no reason for any indivudual to have a computer in their home." (Ken Olsen, President, Chairmen and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977)
"The Telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." Western Union Internal Memo, , 1876
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value. " (Marshall Ferdinand Foch, French Commander of Allied forces during the closing months of World War I, 1918)
Neither will heavier than air flight.
You think this half witted comment is some sort of argument in favor of the oil from garbage myth?
////////////////
you dismissed the technology out of hand. the previous writer's point was that much much stranger things have been invented--and are currently being invented.
like water desalination technologies-- biomass technologies have have been around for a couple of decades. they have just been clunky and expensive. "changing world technologies" just worked the kinks out of the system. (same is happening in water desalination.)
Yes I do.
Oh, that's a famous YuGiOh move: you take a Polymerization Card and fuse Blue Eyes White Dragon with Red Eyes Black Dragon, and next thing you know you're kicking a$$ and taking names.
Not really - this sort of "garbage" has been around in many guises for years and comes under the heading of "something for nothing" or "perpetual motion machine" It's just like the ethanol for motor fuel myth. It uses more energy than you get out of it. I get tired of the fervent, but credulous, believers tooting the the horn
And, BTW, stating a non-sequitor is not an argument. It's not even clever.
Yes and no -- some of that energy being recovered is coming from processes we haven't been able to efficiently tap for energy purposes before, such as photosynthesis (from the vegetable products going into raising the livestock). In a sense, this is managing to capture some solar energy that otherwise would not have been conserved...
It's not "something for nothing" -- the process is only 85-90% efficient in terms of total energy input into the system. But since over 95% of the energy that goes into the system is that which stored inside the waste products, 30 times more usable energy is output than is input, if you exclude the waste products from the input energy.
All this process does is convert energy from a stored/potential form into a usable form. The waste products irrevocably destroyed/converted plus some inefficiency (likely mostly heat loss) accounts for the less than 100% efficiency, which prevents this from being a "perpetual motion machine" type of concept.
I have no idea, but if they put it on Discovery or History Channel, odds are I would watch it.
BTTT
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