Posted on 05/13/2006 6:37:25 AM PDT by kellynla
JACKSON - Three Rivers Solid Waste Authority wants to turn trash into gas for the everyday automobile.
The people who run the 285-acre landfill next to Savannah River Site have invested $400,000 on a machine that separates plastic and paper from other wastes, leaving behind a "processed engineered fuel" that has been used to replace coal.
Now they want to take the cycle a step further by turning the mounds of processed garbage into liquid ethanol for automobiles. Three Rivers General Manager Colin Covington estimates that half of the 250,000 tons of trash that roll into the dump each year could eventually be converted into auto fuel.
If landfills across the country duplicated what Mr. Covington is proposing, he estimates garbage could produce 20 million gallons of ethanol gas annually, or 15 percent of the nation's fuel supply.
"The economics are there for garbage," he said. "We could do it today."
And last year's federal Energy Policy Act, which is loaded with tax breaks and loan guarantees for alternative fuel research, could provide some help. The technology needed to complete the ethanol process would cost upward of $30 million, Mr. Covington estimated.
"I think something is going to happen," he added.
His landfill has at least two things in its favor: the search for alternative fuels grows every time the cost of oil goes up, and there are only a handful of landfills that are separating plastic and paper for energy use.
(Excerpt) Read more at chronicle.augusta.com ...
does it work?
gotta a link?
Little math error there. The U.S. consumes 320,500,000 gallons of gasoline PER DAY...20 million gallons PER YEAR isn't a drop in the bucket
hehe...like the mad scientist in "Back to the Future" where he uses garbage as fuel for his flying car lol
The search is over - cut your heating costs by 80% with a 5 mos payback on investment.
http://www.americanenergysystems.com/pressroom.cfm?tabID=1&pID=33
Is this the system Warren Buffet & Son are in on? That was in the news about using poultry farm manure to make fuel.
It amazes me how frequently articles on science or technology have gross math errors or leave out central details such as the units of measure that might make the stories meaningful. It is clear that the writers and editors neither understand nor much care about the topic at hand.
This brings to mind that old university intellectual pecking order that placed chemical engineers at the top and journalism majors at the bottom of the brainpower scale.
Perhaps we could reduce our consumption of gasoline by gas rationing, gas lines, gas taxes, and of course subsidized guaranteed gasoline for the impoverished. (Current and former distinguished members of Congress would get unlimited quantities of gasoline on demand for free from any fueling station immediately without waiting.) These policies, along with an embargo on foreign energy imports, a prohibition on new drilling and refining activities, and severe limitations on oil-industry profits, salaries, and benefits, comprise the Democratic energy agenda. After the Democrats enact their plan and cause misery and malaise throughout the land, the American people will unite and vote with one voice in their favor that they might rule forevermore.
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