Anything into Oil

DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 04 | ^ | April 2006 | Brad Lemley

[ckilmer]

Here's a Wickipedia background on the thermal depolymerization. The source for the article is Discover Magazine but you have to be a subscriber to get in.

[IronJack]

I knew a year ago when this was first published that $15 a barrel was a pipe dream. I am a cheerleader for these types of innovative fuel technologies, but in these infant stages, overselling the promise is ruinous.

[ckilmer]

agreed. but with world oil prices the way they are--this company can now draw a profit.

amazingly it looks like they can change just about anything carbon based into oil.

For that I don't see why they're not turning every municipal landfill and sewage plant in the country into a profit center rather than a cost center.

oh yeah and also the pig farms of North Carolina.

[Hardastarboard]

15 million cars junked each year

Most of them wearing GM badges. :-)

Seriously, this is a very interesting article, but I'm sure as hell glad that first picture isn't larger and more detailed. UGH!

[palmer]

Production costs turned out to be $80 per barrel

That's $80 a barrel at a particular cost of energy used to do the processing, transport the inputs and products, heat the workers, etc. Obviously that energy cost less and I would bet the $80 calculation assumes that other energy costs a lot less.

[rodguy911]

Like minds, the pig farms in NC are huge problems for the area. If this process could be used up there it would be a Godsend.

[ASOC]

Wow, a real co-generation plant. I wonder if pig farmers could use this on their waste stream? I haven't lived until you have been down wind of a big hog grow operation.....anything would be an improvement.'


The article did talk of 'waste' from the process - can anybody shed any light on this part of the technology?

[snowsislander]

"We thought we would get $24 a ton for taking the waste," says Appel. "Instead, we are paying $30 a ton."

Exactly. I still find it hard to believe that anyone is paying $30 a ton for turkey waste (though I imagine that must include a delivery charge that the turkey producer won't see.)

I believe that also changes the economics for turkey producers also for the better, since I don't believe that getting rid of turkey waste was a profit center before (and at $30 a ton, an attractive one I believe) --- I am pretty sure that such disposal has always been a cost center for turkey producers, though it's been a while since I have talked to anyone active in the business.

[IronJack]

oh yeah and also the pig farms of North Carolina.

Iowa's got its share of pig farms. There's no shortage of offal in the meat-growing and -packing states.

[4U2OUI]

Ugh. I still remember the hog farms in Indiana. They would collect the urine, feces, dead pigs in huge tanks, and then pump it onto the soy and corn fields for fertilizer. DAMN!!! That was rancid.

[IronJack]

These days, most large confinement facilities are on slatted floors, which cover a huge basin. The porcine digestive byproducts drop through the slats into the basin, where they're periodically sluiced into a holding lagoon. The lagoon is nothing more than a huge pit.

You can imagine the fragrance emanating from THAT on a hot July day ...

[dynachrome]

"though I imagine that must include a delivery charge"
I would think you have to pay the haulers of that stuff pretty good money. ugh.

[csmusaret]

Does Iowa wash the hog poop into huge lagoons? That is what they do in NC. It proved to be a major problem during flooding caused by hurricanes.

[petro45acp]

"Exactly. I still find it hard to believe that anyone is paying $30 a ton for turkey waste (though I imagine that must include a delivery charge that the turkey producer won't see.)"

The waste from the process is a dry mineral powder. Excellent for fertilizer or re introduced into a feed stream.

TDP is THE good process for gainging petroleum from waste streams. Changing World Technologies has been plagued by startup difficulties, some understandable, some not (during construction of the Con Agra plant, a whole buttload of welds had to be rescoped, rewelded and scoped again!).

[petro45acp]

These guys have had more than their fair share of problems. Too much government interference, too much diddleage in the areas of fuel classification, and taxes. This is THE BEST way to recover petroleum from waste streams. Land fills will become valueable and not for the expensive foundations they provide for developers. Junkyards and tire disposal yards will be fought over for the petroleum they hold. The potential for franchising trucks with the TDP gear, a mobile petroleum recovery process, will be a huge opportunity.

This is one of, if not the best, potential fixes for getting clear of foreign oil.

A TDP fan,
Top sends

[RightWhale]

with world oil prices the way they are--this company can now draw a profit

Maybe so, but they cannot compete with oil even now. It would take an actual oil shortage to let that happen, something that does not appear to be in the cards. Cost of oil may increase without limit and still be cheaper than this.

[Farmer Dean]

Been there,smelled that.I don't know if the word rancid is adequate to describe the stench.

[Farmer Dean]

Just the filters on the gas masks would be a real expense.

[DUMBGRUNT]

Soylent Green gasoline?

[IronJack]

Does Iowa wash the hog poop into huge lagoons?

Yep. And while Iowa doesn't have many hurricanes, a good southerly breeze can do damage enough ... at least to your olfactory sense.