Lonewolf wrote:
... not this turkey shitte again - how many freaking times/ways do we have to debunk this stinking offal? Old turkey gut scams apparently never freaking die ...
It is not a scam. As to whether or not it should die...
In the movie Battle of the Bulge, there is a scene where a chaplain starts his sermon to the US troops fighting the battle by saying “Is this trip worth it?”
My purpose in jumping in on this thread is to see whether or not either TDP or CDP is “worth it” and how much it can deliver. Obviously, at this point I feel it is.
Is TDP/CDP “the answer?”
No. Not by itself, and it will never be. As part of a comprehensive strategy, I believe it can be an important factor. It should be clear that just making oil from anything HAS to be coupled with greatly reduced consumption of oil. At this point in time, I do not know how much can be done. A full 80% of our oil consumption goes to transportation. Given the current state of technology, I do not know how much we can reduce that amount, nor how quickly. Forced deployment of PHEV technology can cut that down to 40%, after that, I do not know how much lower we can go. Aviation gains in efficiency would potentially lead to more air travel. I do not know that a PHEV tractor is something we want to do as the extra weight may do nasty things to our farm land. So that would leave 6.6% as untouchable. All electric trains may be more efficient then diesel electrics, but stringing the lines may be problematical. The average 5 wheeler uses a 450 hp engine, but I don’t know what the cost benefit of changing that to HEV would do. At the current state of technology, the cost may just be too high. This is important to the TDP discussion for the obvious reason – the less oil we use, the less oil TDP/CDP will have to replace.
The value for me in all this is determining what the real capacity of TDP/CDP is. I want real numbers. I could take the 3% from MSW Kublikhan calculated, and since MSW only represents 4% of total US waste, argue that means we can still hit 75% from total waste. A reasonable proposition if it was a simple ratio problem. As Kublikhan and others have taken the time to use real numbers, I want to use real numbers in response.
Pending review by you all (thank you very much

), I believe I have demonstrated that a lot of energy does get left behind in the agriculture cycle. Waste does produce more energy then we “put into” it. As Kublikhan has pointed out, a lot of waste has other uses. We have yet to agree on a final number, though I feel we are getting there. While TDP can take an unspecified amount of waste and produce an as yet unidentified amount of oil, we have not reached consensus/agreement at the numbers. I would ask that peeps continue to bear with me and help me answer that question.
My google foo has appeared to have hit its limits. I could use help with coming up the following numbers:
We are producing over 10 tons of “ag waste” a year per person. I have NOT been able to find a breakdown for that. Of that waste, how much exactly is being plowed back into the soil? How much of what is being plowed back is too much for the soil to handle? A large percentage of wood waste is listed as unrecoverable – what the heck does that mean? Is it buried in cement? Soaked in copper green? What does our current paper to recycled paper to what (left in the landfill or recycled again?) exactly?
Once we can agree as to what TDP/CDP can do with existing feedstocks, I will start working at filling in the gap. There may or may not be much to do there. One example is the algae to oil process. In watching Ecopolis, several issues were pointed out. One was getting algae to produce suitable diesel without further petrochemical refining. I have to wonder how much solar energy is wasted doing that? The second issue is processing the algae to get the fuel out of it. That ultimately may be another pathway to TDP/CDP oil. A plant, called kenaf is being suggested as a replacement for wood pulp for paper. It grows 15’ in 5 months. Without fertilizers. That could be another pathway. Before I get headed there, I would like to know how much of a gap to fill. “A lot” will not be a helpful answer.
Another possible future path for TDP/CDP is delaying when we hit peak oil, buying us time to come up with “the answer.” Another reason it would be a useful to pursue is that once we can get away from using oil for transportation, the next step would be to start replacing industrial uses for oil. This would suggest that there is a future for TDP/CDP beyond transitioning transportation.
Every problem has its solution, and every solution has its problems....