Peak oil and other fallacies: John Kemp

Reuters ^ | Jan 21, 2013 | John Kemp

[SuziQ]

I'm thinking if they could get the production costs down, they might make a go of it. It wasn't just turkeys that could be used, it was ANY organic waste. Being able to process those to oil would certainly go a long way towards reducing the stuff put in landfills.

If the output was a clean enough oil, it could be used in automobiles that have been re-fitted for that purpose. They might like that better than driving around smelling of french fries and chinese food. Of course the biggest issue will be transportation to the consumer, but if that consumer is willing to pay for it, so be it.

[theBuckwheat]

I was very interested in the CWT process and was cheering them on, but the economic truth from the beginning was that this was only going to be “sustainable” unless it received enough subsidies and grants, which is only “sustainable” the Krugman Dictionary of Economic Terms.

Before they filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, they had been the recipients of multiple multi-million dollar grants and loan guarantees, at least one initially and then more than one to help them buy the equipment to control odor.

Now why they decided to locate a plant that required many trucks hauling turkey waste every day is beyond me. Any truck hauling such products is going to have a substantial odor plume.

Early literature from CWT showed that sewage sludge could be converted. They claimed that the amount of sludge in the US, if converted by their process, would produce enough oil to displace all oil imports. This goes to the complaint about the energy balance of their process. The determination of economic viability is an economic calculation, not one of energy balances. I also saw discussion about converting municipal waste to oil.

It became apparent that one big problem the process has is it is hard to run correctly when the feedstock varies too much or has too much water.

When landfill space gets to be more expensive, that is one value driver that could eventually tip the economics in the favor of CWT. I look forward to the day when a lot more of what we throw away is converted to something useful rather than just being buried.