Local Company Turns Waste to Diesel (21. July 2006, 23:19 by Derek Young) ~ Every Step Counts
The press release seems to speak for itself. Received via email:
July 21, 2006 – - GreenPower Incorporated, a Washington based corporation, will host a public demonstration on July26th at 10 AM to demonstrate their breakthrough technology of the conversion of ordinary landfill waste to high quality diesel fuel. The public is invited to attend.
...Such a plant is proposed for the Tacoma area, the first such plant for the United States. 500 tons of typical waste is estimated to yield approximately 85,000 gallons of fuel on average, at an estimated production cost of well under a dollar per gallon. The proposed plant will require no additional power, as it will use less than 10% of its own fuel production to run generators that will in turn run the plant. The generator exhaust gasses will in turn be catalyzed and fed back into the process, making the plant nearly 100% pollution-free and completely self-sustaining. It can be located in an area accessed by a variety of transportation sources, thus making the Tacoma area an ideal location.
Sounds intriguing to me. If they need more space, I hear there’s an historic steam plant building available…
Link to MMD News
Link to GreenPower, Inc.
Update: Interesting story in Wednesday’s News Tribune
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I’ve heard of this catalytic depolymerization technology before. I need to see it in action in the presence of a trusted chemical engineer to explain exactly how it works and how it will scale up in order for me to believe these claims. But frankly, and I know I’m going to sound a little crazy when I say this, but, I have a huge problem with technological silver bullets like this. It’s not that I don’t like the concept of turning waste into fuel, but the problem of waste and a lack of fuel are both consumption problems not supply problems.
In short my little rant relates to an economic phenomenon known as Jevon’s Paradox , which essentially states that whenever one increases the efficiency of consumption in a piecemeal fashion (with hybrid cars or catalytic depolymerization or with biofuels) the economy just finds a way to consume all of the energy or resources that you saved by increasing efficiency – i.e. retaining the status quo (autos). Silver bullets like this just pave the way for more problems because the old consumption habits we have as a society go unchecked through time. We tend to parade from one crisis to the next, sleepwalking towards the future hoping that scientists and entrepreneurs will ultimately save us from the effects of our own consumption.
Thanks for the heads up on the local demonstration though.
1 | Posted by Chris from Theater District | Jul 22, 02:45 AM
Question:
If recycled fryer grease smells like french fries when run through a diesel car, what will this stuff smell like???
2 | Posted by Davest | Jul 22, 11:06 PM
Holy pessimism. I would think that making anything out of garbage would be a good thing. Its super recycling.
3 | Posted by Hilltop, its not as bad as you think! | Jul 25, 04:47 PM
If anyone goes to the demonstration today please post what you saw!
4 | Posted by Andrew | Jul 26, 09:11 AM
Commenting is closed for this article.
