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February 07, 2007
Thermal Depolymerization redux
Via Pajamas, a story about a new type of garbage-in, energy-out refinery.
Looks like a subset of thermal depolymerization, one of my pet enthusiasms. The literature on TDP says it could scale to the size of a flatbed truck (as in this invention) or to a huge refinery. The first operating plant is pretty huge.
TDP can theoretically ingest anything except radioactive waste and render it into something useful. This plant concentrates on organic waste:
The tactical biorefinery first separates organic food material from residual trash, such as paper, plastic, Styrofoam and cardboard. The food waste goes to a bioreactor where industrial yeast ferments it into ethanol, a "green" fuel. Residual materials go to a gasifier where they are heated under low-oxygen conditions and eventually become low-grade propane gas and methane. The gas and ethanol are then combusted in a modified diesel engine that powers a generator to produce electricity.The TDP process can produce gasoline and various grade of fuel oil, without having to use industrial yeast. This looks like it needs an extra step.
Maybe they tested out TDP and it wasn't quite ready for prime time, and stepped it back to this process, which works better?
Judith | 02/07/07 at 12:23 AM | Categories: - Amazing things
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