Biodiesel From Human Waste

[SkyPup]

At least this one will NOT be be driving up the cost of pork, beef, chicken, lamb, etc like all the soybean or corn "green" fuel sources.

U.S. farmers have planted more corn this year than anytime since WWII, and with the huge drought this year, it may seriously increase the cost of foodstuffs across the board. Not to mention, the drain on aquifiers and surface water resources......

 

[IH3444]

Article in Popular Science about biodiesel from Alge this month. Interesting........

 

[SkyPup]

The main problem is the huge amounts of surface area and water needed to grow and process it, not to mention the toxic odor, thereby negating any potential benefits.

 

[dmccarty]

The article I read about the algea awhile back said they where trying figure out to grow it in tanks to lower the land use requirements and weather issues.

Tyson and Connoco are trying to convert animal fats into BioDiesel. Connoco would use the BioDiesel to mix into regular diesel. The article said that if this went into production it would provide 5% of the diesel used in the US. Not sure I believe those numbers though.

The article did not say what Tyson does with the animal fat currently. Landfill?

There is also a Dr. at Purdue that has been working on some wee little bugs to convert cellulose into fuel. She seems to have succeeded after decades of work.

But do any of these make money sense? Only time will tell. I don't think any one process is a silver bullet but if enough of them work they might keep up with growing demand for fuel. Replace oil from the ground? I would doubt it.

Later,
Dan

 

[DieselPower]

I'm not sure how old the article you read on animal fat is but they have been using it for a good many years. When the mad cow disease (or was it hoof & mouth, something like that) hit Canada the other year that's what a large portion of their beef cattle turned into, fuel.

 

[SkyPup]

England was the country severely hit by Foot & Mouth virus that decimated their cloven hoof stock, it is eliminated strictly through culling via burning the entire carcass to destroy the viral factories.

Canada has had a few case so Mad Cow Prion disease.

 

[DrainPondDesign]

Sky Pup,

Your observation about corn is on the mark, corn's used to produce ethanol which is only a positive energy gain when the residue be used as live stock feed. This too is not a replacement for fossil fuel.

Sorry if I sound negative but I'm old enough to remember previous promises that later only created more problems

As in "We will feed the multitudes of the future from the endless bounty of the sea."

As a skeptic I agree more with Milton Freedman.
"There is no such thing as a free lunch."

 

[Kendrick]

fat is used to make diesel and soap. solids are a pita to eavenly process that is the downside. mixing liquids is far easier. making soap is the same process you just adjust mixtures. if you get the mix wrong during fuel production you get a layer of soap ontop of your diesel. you often 2 or 3 layers off of your feed stock after reaction. 1 unused stock 2 soap 3 diesel. The reason that the feds mandate bubble washing the diesel is to get unreacted materials out of the fuel. that is ofc only for diesel for sale. It is also the same reason that when you run bio in a tank that has been fossile for years you get a clogged fuel filter shortly afterwords. the soap in the diesel cleans the system out. if you switch gradually enough you wont clog the filter if you go B100 right off you will have a filter exp.

Alge currently does not produce enough oil per cell to be viable. late 80's they were looking at the strains to see which produced the most oil and then engeneer it to produce more. the more popular places to stick the alge ponds are in with certin factorys that use the pond to send co2 as a waist product.
They were also looking in to useing areas in the ocean near the shoreline to produce large quantitys of alge.

The biproduct of pressing the oil out of the alge is a animal feed stock.

IIRc tyson etc are put to several uses. cant remember what they are. the difference will be incentives. right now spent fryer oil goes in to makeing ladys makeup's and bath soap. it is just a matter of which they will get payed better for in the end.

DrainPondDesign, I dont think the human waste method has the same drawbacks as vegie oil.
I do agree with As in "We will feed the multitudes of the future from the endless bounty of the sea."

As a skeptic I agree more with Milton Freedman.
"There is no such thing as a free lunch."

though. plus I would be happy to put the makeup business in a bind to many ppl now days think that 2" of makeup is required to go out the door. makeup like everything else must be used in moderation. same to be said for ethanol and bio. alge is the best bio stock for the future. if the human waste works well and doesnt have much negitive gasses from the burning process then it will be even better suited then alge. for now it is a time will tell situation. turning household garbage in to plasma and then causing a + electricity flow from the energy output also falls in this catigory. byproducts are electricity, a fiew gasses some reusable, and volcanic glass.

fyi the navy did a fuel study of both bio and reg diesel. the shelf life of bio is far greater then reg. at the end of the study the reg diesel had been contaminated and partially broken down while the bio was still in near prime condition. this is with proper storage methods

 

[DrainPondDesign]

Sure hope that the garbage plasma works better than the old USSR coal fueled Magneto/Hydrodynamic plasma electrical generator, I never read where they solved the pickup conductor erosion/contamination problem & haven't heard anything new about it in years.

I agree that very high temps are probably the best bet at eliminating nasty toxins which are inevitable in a mixed waste stream like garbage.

I just moved from Islip Township, NY that was the origin of the world famous "Islip Garbage Barge" which actually was a win/win for everyone but the press tuned it into a circus that defeated its author in the following election. So I'm a skeptic, if I can think of a possible problem with a proposed process & that problem is not addressed in the process press release then maybe that information is not complete and unbiased. Or maybe not.

 

[IH3444]

Skypup, one of the major points about alge was that it needed less area to grow, mainly in tubes. Good article. If you get a chance, you should read it.

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