Turkey Fuel? Factory to Turn Guts Into Crude Oil

[madokie]

With competent leadership at the top this is an example of only one of many solutions technically we have. Landfills and Oil.


Nicole Davis
for National Geographic News

November 25, 2003
As Americans prepare to gobble down 45 million turkeys on Thursday, a factory in Carthage, Missouri, is turning the feathers and innards of the feted bird into a clean-burning fuel oil. Changing World Technologies (CWT), a New York environmental technology company that is behind the project, also has plans to turn the organic waste from chickens, cows, hogs, onions, and Parmesan cheese into light crude oil—and those are just the some of CWT's proposed ventures.

The company works such miracles through thermo-polymerization (TDP), a process by which waste materials are broken down by intensive heat and pressure to produce natural gas, fuel oil, and minerals. The company's CEO, Brian Appel, says he can turn any type of carbon-based waste—be it computers or offal—into combustible fuel. But he admits many people are skeptical.


the rest: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1125_031125_turkeyoil.html

[iamjoy]

1. Here's My Skepticism

does this process take so much fossil fuel that it really isn't an effective method of producing an alternative.

[madokie]

5. I have been following this plant via magizines since when it was first

only a pipedream so to speak. but no it is a viable process it's just it is a new process that hasn't had all the wrinkles worked out yet. In developing anything that is new there is a learning curve and thats where they are now. Close to having the process down pat then the benefits can be reaped.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. There we go, depending on Muslim countries for fuel again

[Cassandra]

4. It certainly reworks the meaning of Thanksgiving.

Cooking with guts!

[TreasonousBastard]

3. He claims it takes only 15 BTUs to produce...

100 BTUs of energy from trash and garbage. This sounds a bit too good to be true, but stranger things have happened.

We shall see, and if it is true then we have more cheap fuel to burn and still have to address global warming.

There is no free lunch no matter how you look at it.

[madokie]

6. no free lunch as such but in a much better position none the less

two birds one stone. Use our Waste and produce Oil. Making more energy than it takes to make to top it all off. looks like a win/win to me.

[On the Road]

7. Actually, It Does Not Contribute to Global Warming

Because it uses material that's already above ground, it does not introduce new carbon into the atmosphere. Or so I understand.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. There's plenty of carbon around in the...

biomass, but the point is burning it, making more CO2.

A tree is full of carbon, and uses some CO2 in the atmosphere-- if we cut it down and burn it we haven't changed the amount of carbon, but we have definitely changed its form from a beneficial one to a a problem.

[sutz12]

8. I believe this has been on "Beyond Tomorrow"...

or one of the science programs, anyhow. It sounds like promising technology. Gee, I wonder if they could have used a few billion $$$ in federal grant money for development?

Nah. Better to spend the money bombing brown people. :sarcasm: