Posted on 01/21/2005 6:30:55 AM PST by kevkrom
One solution to america's energy crisis just may be gobbling away at a poultry farm near you. Changing World Technologies has developed a working system to convert turkey guts and scraps into fuel oil. But CWT's tribulations show how hard it is for even the most innovative green company to compete in the energy business.
CWT's improbable alchemy is based on an idea that scientists have been kicking around for three decades: mimicking the earth's process for creating oil and gas. By subjecting organic materials to extreme heat and pressure, CWT produces in minutes what the planet takes thousands of years to make. The company says its process works on tires, various hazardous wastes, and plastic as well as heavy metals.
The key question is whether the end products are pure enough and cheap enough to compete with other biofuels and petroleum. Until recently it seemed that turkey fuel would score big on both counts. CWT saw opportunity in the mad cow scare of December 2003. Expecting U.S. authorities to ban the feeding of animal offal to livestock—a practice linked to mad cow disease—CWT and ConAgra formed a joint venture that built a $30 million plant in Carthage, Mo. The venture assumed that nearby turkey processors would provide lots of free turkey waste. Last year the Carthage plant began selling its output to a Midwestern manufacturer, which buys it for roughly $40 a barrel (25% less than conventional fuel) and uses it to run its plant. The Carthage factory now produces 400 barrels a day.
That's a drop in the ocean of U.S. oil consumption, currently running around 20 million barrels a day. But making more turkey fuel isn't as hard as nailing down its costs. It turns out that feeding animals to animals remains standard practice in the U.S., despite a modest tightening in the regulations last year. So instead of being free, turkey leftovers cost $30 to $40 a ton, a hefty expense considering that one ton of turkey yields just two barrels of oil.
And turkey fuel has so far been excluded from biofuel tax breaks. In October, Congress passed a bill that gave biodiesel, which is also derived from biological material, such as soybean oil and animal fat, but has a different chemical composition, a tax incentive that translates into a $1-a-gallon break on production costs. "The good news is that the government finally gave an incentive for producing fuel from waste," says CWT chairman and CEO Brian Appel. "The bad news is that it narrowly defined the kind of fuel receiving the incentive."
As a result of those two setbacks, CWT's production costs have doubled, to nearly $80 a barrel, a crippling blow given that conventional diesel sells for about $50 a barrel. CWT is staying afloat, thanks to a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. But the company's next operation is likely to be in Europe, where food processors will pay to have CWT dispose of animal offal and where most governments offer tax incentives to biofuel producers. Appel is negotiating to license CWT's technology to Irish Food Processors, one of Europe's largest, which plans to build a biofuel facility by the end of 2006.
Even so, ignoring the beneift of disposing of animal waste, if the waste were free, they're still spending about $60/barrel to make what can be sold for $40/barrel. Either the costs need to be brought down, or the extra benefits of waste disposal need to be significant for this technology to be successful.
To join the "quality-of-life technologies" ping list (very low volume), please FReepMail me.
Supposedly almost any organics can be used, not just turkey.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, we could plant cottonwood trees that grow like wildfire. Can't burn them. Can't build with the wood.
Totally worthless for anything else!
It turns out that feeding animals to animals remains standard practice in the U.S., despite a modest tightening in the regulations last year. So instead of being free, turkey leftovers cost $30 to $40 a ton, a hefty expense considering that one ton of turkey yields just two barrels of oil.
So this practice has not been stopped. As this is the engine behind mad cow and it's derivatives I had been given the impression this was being ended. The euros have done it, but big agra has not. Are we going to have to wait for a hideous tragedy to take place over here before outcry becomes loud enough and sustained enough for politicians to act? From some of the stuff I have read on the subject, vCJD is like a case of Alzheimers that runs it's entire course at hyperspeed--killing the victim in six weeks to two months--so it is easy to misdiagnose or file under "unknown dementia." All the easier if there is a powerful incentive to do so. The CWT process has been kicked around on this forum for a year-and-a-half now. I gather it is established that it does work, it's just a matter of economy whether this becomes a significant contribution to the world of energy and waste disposal or just another perpetual motion machine. Perhaps a little regulatory meddling is legitimately needed here (to hear the greenies go on about it, the pork producers own the southern legislatures).
Southern legislatures ? Try Iowa, Minnesota, etc.
Good points. I'll just stick with "concerned but hopeful" at this point. :)
wait till the cottonwood allergies arrive then you will know what you can do with cottonwood trees. in the right season you can watch it take grown men to their knees. they affect about 45% of North Texas in the spring.
yup
First, "The science doesn't support the concept"
Second, "It may work in a lab, but it won't work on a large scale"
Third, "The efficiency just won't be what people expect"
Now it is, 'It's still not cost effective"
It will be eventually. This technology will change the way the world looks at waste disposal and it's those dirty, polluting Americans who have figured out how to stop landfills cold.
And turkey fuel has so far been excluded from biofuel tax breaks. In October, Congress passed a bill that gave biodiesel, which is also derived from biological material, such as soybean oil and animal fat, but has a different chemical composition, a tax incentive that translates into a $1-a-gallon break on production costs. "The good news is that the government finally gave an incentive for producing fuel from waste," says CWT chairman and CEO Brian Appel. "The bad news is that it narrowly defined the kind of fuel receiving the incentive."
I certainly hope so. I've been looking for a while on the actual cost numbers, and have to admit that I was a little disappointed to see that it was so high on an incremental basis -- if that number factored in the infrastructure cost, it might not be too bad, but as a per-unit cost, it's a bit concerning.
As beneficial as this technology is, I doubt it will make significant headway unless it can operate at a profit. Hopefully they'll continue to improve the process to make it more cost efficient now that the technological concept appears to have been borne out on a reasonable scale.
Give it time. It has overcome many of the hurdles that many thought were impossible to overcome.
Look at it this way, how many people have come on this thread to say the technology is a "boondoggle" or another example of "cold fusion"? The technology has proven itself, now the proper application and development needs to be fine tuned.
I had hopes for a source of oil production with this technology. Now I realize that oil production is just a side benefit and the real use of this technology will be in the waste management field.
You know all of those used tire yards? Gone with a plant like this. You know those nasty landfills? Build a plant nearby and ship it in for proper disposal.
Don't forget municipal liquid waste, which will be a much simpler application than landfill waste due to being considerably more predictable in its composition.
We don't need turkey guts! Oil is a renewable resource!
Exactly! This technology will allow America to be the least polluting nation on earth not because some Wiccan tree-hugger made us feel guilty, but because garbage turned into oil, fertalizer and raw minerals is worth more than sitting in a landfill. And sewage treated with chemicals isn't suitable for drinking as purified water from one of these plants is.
Capitalism at it's finest!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.