Drilling For Time - Potentially rich lodes of gas and oil

Tampa Tribune ^ | June 26, 2005 | KEITH EPSTEIN kepstein@tampatrib.com

[Meldrim]

I was enthusiastic about this technology, but now I am less so. They are having problems which may be the result of still being "high on the learning curve" but which also may be a function of the technology. Hopefully, this will at least become applicable to the disposal of centrally collected waste (sewerage, municipal trash, tires, organic industrial refuse, nonferrous junk). Thus far however, thermal depolymerization has not lived up to the potential.

[RightWhale]

If we buy 15-20 years that should be long enough for replacement technologies to come online.

The Arab Oil Embargo, an act of war, in 1973 was a wake-up call. The Dept of Energy was created as a result. 30+ years and we are still relying on cheap oil to power our modern industrial economy. Would another 15-20 years make a difference?

For that matter we had also sent men to the moon by then, but can't even put men in orbit with any regularity now. All this should be easy by now.

[DHerion]

An oil embargo is not an act of war any more then the U.S. not selling oil to Japan or selling wheat to Russia or me not selling you my baseball card collection.

The Department of Energy is a nothing but a bureaucracy consuming tax dollars.

We need the oil, its there, and it can be pumped safely. Whether it last one year or a hundred what does it matter? Should we not mine coal in a particular field because it will be exhausted in 5, 10 or 15 years. Or do you have the location of a magic oil field that is inexhaustible?

[virgil]

Florida is going to lose tourism anyway as more and more people (illegal immigrants included)move there and turn the hotels into condos.

[virgil]

Florida is going to lose tourism anyway as more and more people (illegal immigrants included)move there and turn the hotels into condos.

[snowsislander]

I was enthusiastic about this technology, but now I am less so. They are having problems which may be the result of still being "high on the learning curve" but which also may be a function of the technology.

Have you seen anything recently on this? I have been very interested in the technology, but disappointed in how little I hear about it -- now that they have been running for a while, I think they must have a good idea of the running costs.

I did see on the company's webpage that CWT is going ahead with building other plants, but I didn't see any other details.

[theBuckwheat]

>>Thus far however, thermal depolymerization has not lived up to the potential.<<

My, my! You sound like a you think they are already in a "quagmire" and should give up.

In fact they appear to be doing just fine. All this takes time, especially when a lot of activity must await approval from the government. Right now they are building a bigger plant near Longmont, Colorado to process cattle and poultry slaughterhouse waste.

A lot of details about this new plant can be found in this Environmental Assessment by the federal Department of Energy:

http://www.eh.doe.gov/nepa/ea/EA1506/finalea.pdf

It must be mentioned that much work could be put in even planning for this plant, much less assembling the needed parts and machinery for it, prior to the completion and approval of this 70+ page Assessment. So please don't be too quick to declare a technology to be useless and dead, when in fact it has just been stopped in its tracks for a short time to await for the bureaucrats to finish the work they insist they must do (at their own snail's pace).

Even if this particular technology proves to not be as wonderful as first thougtht, the experience gained in running these plants will help others to refine the ideas.

Remember that the Philadelphia test plant has successfully processed sewage sludge.

Some of my friends who live near the Carthage plant say it is running but that it has odor problems. The problem isn't the plant itself, but from the stinkin' trucks that run day and night hauling turkey guts. In perspective, that has got to be a small problem.

[carl in alaska]

Would you like to name a few of these "sick and twisted tyrants in the corporate world."? I worked in the corporate world for 19 years and I met a lot of tough, results-oriented executives but I never met a "sick and twisted tyrant." The increasing price of oil and gasoline is primarily the result of numerous government policies and has not been generated by the oil industry.

[RightWhale]

Right. That one was.

[hinckley buzzard]

To that list, Florida senators Bill Nelson, a Democrat, and Mel Martinez, a Republican, lately have added potential hazards to military pilots who would have to dodge oil and gas rigs during training exercises.

Considering where we may be fighting in the future, this sounds like good training at that.

[hinckley buzzard]

Would you like to name a few of these "sick and twisted tyrants in the corporate world."

I don't keep score on these things but it seems to me that about 6 or 8 high fliers from the 90's are now at Club Fed or on their way.

[Freebird Forever]

Would you like to name a few of these "sick and twisted tyrants in the corporate world."?

They're scheduled to meet in Davos January 25 - 29, 2006.

Take your pick.

[Meldrim]

"So please don't be too quick to declare a technology to be useless and dead"

I did neither, and I am hopeful that they can live up at least to the efficient disposal of tires, sewerage and cogenterational plants with municipal waste.

[Meldrim]

I have read that the Carthage plant was having problems. Some apparently having to do with faulty welding. The fact that private industry in Europe is looking to build a plant is helpful. In the future, we may see disposal plants colocated with power generators whose plant is specifically tailored to burn the type of fuel that the TDP produces.

[Farnham]

Deja vu

I could swear I have read this article before - circa 1968.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Instead, tapping the outer continental shelf would merely delay - by five to 10 years for oil and 11 to 19 years for gas - the day global reserves reach their apex and forever start to decline.

So what? It will buy us time as we pursue and develop other sources of energy. It will ease the transition from Oil to Post-Oil.