Posted on 09/04/2005 1:36:26 PM PDT by Dementon
A day late and a dollar short
Are you refering to the post or the technology?
I agree, it's something that should be seriously explored.
Neither
You gonna make me play 20 questions here?
Ask how this pilot plant will make any difference at all in the situation of world consumption of 84 million barrels of oil a day.
If you are referring to this process as a way to produce oil, nothing is too late. We will always need oil. But the benefit of this is that it gets rid of some kinds trash. Rather than land-filling it, it is partially turned into something useful. It doesn't need large outside energy sources since it uses its own product to provide the heat for the process.
(I don't expect this one plant to make a difference. I expect it to become economically feasible to build more and eventually, the production costs to drop.)
There is a cost and a benefit. This process is put forth as a possible answer to the oil peak that appears to be coming in the next decade. The cost indicates that it won't make a bit of difference in the bigger picture.
At this point everything is too late. The oil economy has about reached its zenith and will be heading down soon, along with the rest of the economy.
Someone care to remind me why we use animal wastes to feed our foodstock? Seems that feeding cattle grass/hay/and grains would make for better and safer beef. This would also help to bolster grain prices for farmers, thus possibly lowering the "need" for government farm subsidies/payouts.
Oh - wait, that would be logical- asking too much.... nevermind.
I agree...saw a news segment on this very technology, and the company in the forefront, the same one developing this plant I believe, was shoveling in all types of consumer waste into the mouth of this plant...old computer parts, trash, any post-consumer waste with plastics...and out came beautiful oil. At the time it appeared to be one of those "never heard from again" technologies supposed to revolutionize our energy industry, but it appears it actually works, and with oil at the price it is now, this plant could be making $35,000 per day, 12 mil. a year at $70 a barrel oil...provided I did my math correctly (a big "if"). :) Hope it is profitable and is explored further.
This is a pilot plant, therefore, small. No, the process will probably never put out 84 million barrels a day, but if you put a large plant near each major city, it would solve a few problems. Where I live, we have to truck the garbage many miles to the nearest landfill. Large fuel costs, huge wear and tear on the trucks, lots of employee time just to sit and drive. Lot of wasted money. Most of that driving would not be needed. Anything to cut out that cost would be welcome. And, oh, we make several thousand barrels of oil to sell.
The savings rate has fallen to zero. There is no way to afford to build these things; the investment is impossible.
It will cost more to build than the value of the product. No matter what we do, the free lunch is over.
Obviously, the single pilot plant won't make a difference, but how much similar product could be produced from the megatons of garbage that any city produces every day instead of land-filling it?? It might even make garbage collection a net profit-maker.
Very cool article. Thanks.
A little back of the envelope figuring suggests that just US wastes alone could generate 50 million barrels of oil per day or more.
We'll find our economy headed down long before we run out of oil; the Peak Oil theory doesn't say we are running out of oil. It does say that oil is about to become less of a resource and we have nothing to replace that resource that will keep the economy rolling along at its present level either worldwide or in the US alone.
Say that is a good number. How can we afford the investment in the necessary plants when our net savings have fallen to zero? Where will the money come from?
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