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Microwaves extract tough-to-reach oil
The Patriot-News ^ | September 17, 2006 | DAVID DeKOK

Posted on 09/17/2006 6:33:24 PM PDT by thackney

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To: FairWitness
how do you pull a vacuum

With a vaccuum pump. A big one. That sucks, and is supposed to. The RF Noise sucks louder.

/johnny

21 posted on 09/17/2006 7:47:20 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (They want to be die in jihad. I'm here to help, in whatever small way I can.)
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To: Arizona Carolyn

Ship it to Europe and the Carib, have them refine it and send it back.


22 posted on 09/17/2006 7:47:27 PM PDT by appeal2
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To: thackney

Great, now the enviros can complain about stray microwaves frying us all.


23 posted on 09/17/2006 7:52:12 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Paleo Conservative

Yuma is where the Colorado River empties into the Gulf of California. Water isn't an issue for the project.


24 posted on 09/17/2006 7:56:49 PM PDT by Arizona Carolyn
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To: appeal2

And that is more affordable than doing it here?


25 posted on 09/17/2006 7:57:43 PM PDT by Arizona Carolyn
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To: JRandomFreeper
With a vaccuum pump. A big one.

O.K., I asked for that. What I really was wondering is, whether most oil wells are that much of a "closed system", without "cracks" and passages wandering off in all directions that would make it impractical to pull a serious vacuum?

26 posted on 09/17/2006 8:00:14 PM PDT by FairWitness
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To: thackney

ping for later


27 posted on 09/17/2006 8:10:45 PM PDT by rface ("...the most schizoid freeper I've ever seen" - New Bloomfield, Missouri)
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To: Arizona Carolyn

Except that every drop of the Colorado River is overallocated.


28 posted on 09/17/2006 8:17:17 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: FairWitness
Depends on the location.

Some days you can pull a large vacuum. Some days, you can't. Most days you can.

/johnny

29 posted on 09/17/2006 8:40:27 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (They want to be die in jihad. I'm here to help, in whatever small way I can.)
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To: thackney

A somewhat related subject : growing mounds of old rubber tires. Once in a Popular Science(or Mechanics)article, I read about a couple of guys down south somewhere that had worked out this process : cut the tires up into small chunks, then drop them into a bath of liquid lead. The steel cords drop to the bottom and the rubber molecules, as froth, come to the top. Thus you skim off the froth as feed stock for new tires. Sounded like it might work as a rubber tire recycling process, instead of just burying them in these ever growing mountains of old tires. Recycling old tires, like old oil fields is GREAT, if it's economically viable. Does anyone here know any thing more about this idea?


30 posted on 09/17/2006 8:40:50 PM PDT by timer
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To: FairWitness
serious vacuum?

-3 psi would pull this house to the ground. With malice aforethought. Here and now sux, but not that badly.

/johnny (happily single for several years)

31 posted on 09/17/2006 8:44:44 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (They want to be die in jihad. I'm here to help, in whatever small way I can.)
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To: timer

Yes there is. Search "microwave oil shale" and you will find some companies working on tires as well as shale.


32 posted on 09/17/2006 8:49:27 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney

Thanks, I will. It's always ticked me off to have to pay $1 to just GET RID of an old tire when they should be either taking it away for free or paying you something like 25 cents for it. Some people grumble about these "tire mountains" as eyesores and mosquito breeding grounds but "microwave oil shale", as it refers to rubber tires, still has to be viable economically to work. Don't expect santa claus, the tooth fairy, the easter bunny to solve the problem for FREE.....Do you know about RIS(Resonant Ionization Spectroscopy)? It does with precisely tuned lasars/wavelengths just about what MOS technology does to "dead oil". It converts garbage into pure isotopes.


33 posted on 09/17/2006 9:13:57 PM PDT by timer
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To: thackney

It is interesting. And it is more evidence that Yankee ingenuity will prevail, *if* the idiot guberment will just quit getting in the way.


34 posted on 09/17/2006 9:16:40 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s...you weren't really there.)
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To: Paleo Conservative

The Gulf of California isn't complaining, yet


35 posted on 09/17/2006 9:19:28 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: thackney
237,000 abandoned oil wells

Geez. If commercial quantities of oil could be recovered from a majority of those wells, I would think we'd be looking at some significant reserves. Particularly if we extapolate that to include abandoned wells in the rest of the country.

36 posted on 09/17/2006 9:20:18 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s...you weren't really there.)
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To: timer
"...A somewhat related subject : growing mounds of old rubber tires. Once in a Popular Science(or Mechanics)article, I read about a couple of guys down south somewhere that had worked out this process : cut the tires up into small chunks, then drop them into a bath of liquid lead. The steel cords drop to the bottom and the rubber molecules, as froth, come to the top. Thus you skim off the froth as feed stock for new tires. Sounded like it might work as a rubber tire recycling process, instead of just burying them in these ever growing mountains of old tires. Recycling old tires, like old oil fields is GREAT, if it's economically viable. Does anyone here know any thing more about this idea?..."

Careful. Rubber, as in tires, is a vulcanized product, and is not able to be recycled back into rubber for new tires. Rubber is actually a Thermoset Plastic, rather than a Thermoplastic Plastic.

That means that as it is heated or aged, it becomes harder and harder, until it is brittle and useless for nothing but landfill.

Here's a simplified version of the process of making tires:

Raw Latex rubber (a milky coloured sticky mass like pine sap) is put in a mixer (called a mill) and mixed with chemicals (yellow sulfur, carbon-black, and other stuff) to form a less-sticky, soft, black substance.
That stuff (a measured amount) is then placed in a mold that has the shape of a tire.
The mold is heated to about 650 degrees F for a while, and vulcanization (solidification)begins.
The mold is then cooled quickly after a specified time, to room temperature, and the tire is removed for use. It's soft or hard, depending on the time spent at the hot temperature - short time=soft, long time=hard.

Vulcanization, once started, never stops, but only slows down. After about 20-30 years, a brand new tire is useless, because it will have hardened to being brittle.

That's why old tires get cracks in them, and the process cannot be reversed. Hope this helps............FRegards

Addenda:
Yellow sulfur-primary vulcanization agent
Carbon Black-UV protection, and it looks cool

37 posted on 09/18/2006 1:22:24 AM PDT by gonzo (.........Good grief!...I'm as confused as a baby in a topless club!.........)
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To: timer
Additionaly, I remember a trial road being paved with a mix of asphalt, ground-up old tires, and gravel. They tried it as a means of using-up old tires, knowing the vulcanization process would continue! (Political boondogle)

They had to replace the road after 5 years.............FRegards

38 posted on 09/18/2006 1:29:00 AM PDT by gonzo (.........Good grief!...I'm as confused as a baby in a topless club!.........)
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To: Paleo Conservative

But not the Gulf of California and they have a desalinization plant, that they don't use, in Yuma to desalt the Colorado River.


39 posted on 09/18/2006 8:51:48 AM PDT by Arizona Carolyn
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To: gonzo

Thanks so much for the info, I KNEW I'm not an expert on rubber tires. Have you heard about this new "memory metal" discovery : a rubber-metal alloy with the same properties as the crash debris found at the Roswell UFO crash site?


40 posted on 09/18/2006 12:35:36 PM PDT by timer
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