[charliebrownout]

I came across an article about garbage being turned into gas and I'm curious what PO folks think about the idea.

It sounds too good to be true, like the ultimate solution: we make lots of waste, we need more gas, so why don't we burn our waste as gas?

Most things that are "too good to be true" typically are, but I have to ask.

[Kylon]

From a thermodynamic standpoint it's perfectly feasible. You can also turn plastic garbage through thermal depolymerization back into oil.

From a thermodynamic standpoint, it's just like burning garbage. If you convert it to gas, you can burn it in that form. If you decide to incinerate garbage, you can get energy that way too.

If you chemically modify it to produce oil, that also works.

Problem is, although our waste is large, there isn't enough to sustain society. It's a very unsustainable solution. It will work for a while, but then we're screwed.

We need to go to coal in the short term, then while we are building coal power plants and exploiting the power produced by them, construct the appartus for mass production(to reduce cost) of large scale nuclear power plant projects.

Coal to Liquid can take care of our fuel supply in the short term.

While the use of nuclear power and potassium hydroxide to extract carbon from the air can take care of the energy problem in the long run.

That should give us a thousand years til we more fully develop fusion, which could extend our power supply further.

[charliebrownout]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GASMON', 'A')llready being done, in a small way in the UK

Extract from newspaper.

A former pit village in Derbyshire became the first in Europe to set up a power station to use methane piped from a rubbish tip to heat homes and sell electricity.

More than 70% of the 200 homes in Poolsbrook, near Staveley, have signed up to receive heating from the scheme which will cut bills in half.

Villagers, many on low incomes and unemployed after pit closures, set up a company limited by guarantee, formed a seven-strong board of directors and are raising £2m from quangos and development agencies to build a generator the size of a house and put in the district heating pipes.

The combined heat and power scheme will bring a cleaner, healthier environment through drastically reducing CO2 emissions. The scheme is being held up as an example of how a community can regenerate itself in what is one of Britain's most deprived areas and may become a government pilot.

Problem is scale - Note 70% of 200 homes - not a lot. Its a step in the right direction though, but don't expect a great deal, even if all garbage can be dealt with this way.

Gasmon

[seahorse]

US Army biofuel project.

US Army biofuel project

Also this:

US Army testing first tactical bio-refinery

Tactical bio-refinery

[BigQuake]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('charliebrownout', 'I') came across an article about garbage being turned into gas and I'm curious what PO folks think about the idea.

It sounds too good to be true, like the ultimate solution: we make lots of waste, we need more gas, so why don't we burn our waste as gas?

Most things that are "too good to be true" typically are, but I have to ask.

[BigQuake]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('seahorse', 'U')S Army biofuel project.

US Army biofuel project

Also this:

US Army testing first tactical bio-refinery

Tactical bio-refinery

[BigQuake]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GASMON', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('charliebrownout', '[')
True, but if they found a way to do this with garbage and sewage while also getting into solar, wind, and nuclear--wouldn't that take up the slack?

Sorry, I'm new, but looking at some of the information, it just seems like there IS technology and there IS a way to mitigate the environmental and economic problem of oil that would benefit EVERYONE, but the problem seems to be that everyone is wrapped around oil?

As for the whole corn ethanol mess, I'm having a hard time imagining WHY anyone would want to jump in with both feet into corn ethanol when other ways that don't jeopardize food are available??

It just seems like some myopic rich idiots have hijacked the world and are bent on crashing it into a wall...for no apparent reason...

[charliebrownout]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigQuake', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('charliebrownout', 'I') came across an article about garbage being turned into gas and I'm curious what PO folks think about the idea.

It sounds too good to be true, like the ultimate solution: we make lots of waste, we need more gas, so why don't we burn our waste as gas?

Most things that are "too good to be true" typically are, but I have to ask.

[Ivan_M]

I was

[Ivan_M]

doing it wrong

[Ivan_M]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('charliebrownout', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigQuake', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('charliebrownout', 'I') came across an article about garbage being turned into gas and I'm curious what PO folks think about the idea.

It sounds too good to be true, like the ultimate solution: we make lots of waste, we need more gas, so why don't we burn our waste as gas?

Most things that are "too good to be true" typically are, but I have to ask.

[pedalling_faster]

in Sonoma County, at the landfill in Cotati, there is a compost facility on top of a landfill that's been capped with about a foot of recycled concrete.

when you're standing on the edge of the facility, you can smell the methane, or rather, the sulfur that is emitted as part of the same process that creates the methane.

it is piped to a generation facility that outputs 2 Megawatts, supplying 800 homes with electricity.

"gas from garbage" is a good tool to have in the toolbox.