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Re: [greenyes] remember this? (Re: Changing World Technologies)


On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 14:09:50 -0400, you wrote:

>At 05:05 PM 4/14/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>>http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11370598.htm
>>
>>Posted on Tue, Apr. 12, 2005
>>
>>Innovative turkey-to-oil plant eats money, spits out fowl odor
>>
>>By KAREN DILLON The Kansas City Star
>>
>>Photos by NORMAN NG/The Kansas City Star
>
>>"This is a first-of-a-kind plant in the world," said Paul Halberstadt, a
>>vice president at the Renewable Environmental Solutions plant. Poultry
>>waste is turned into crude oil at the Carthage facility. But it comes with
>>a side effect - an unexplained stench. Halberstadt said the company has
>>added scrubbers to reduce odors.
>>
>>Carthage was promised an odor-free plant. That didn't happen. Now Mayor
>>Kenneth Johnson worries that the town is getting a bad reputation. "This
>>type of publicity isn't going to help tourism," he said.
>>
>>CARTHAGE, Mo. - The eyes of the world have been on this Missouri town for
>>several years to see if a New York businessman can really turn turkey
>>leftovers into oil.
>>
>>The answer: A resounding yes. In fact, a revolutionary plant is turning
>>270 tons of poultry waste into 300 barrels of crude oil every day.
>
>Of course it stinks--its a rendering plant. But lets do some
>back-of-the-envelope math:

Not exactly. What's happening is the vent filters are getting
overwhelmed and some of the odor that should be trapped is getting
out. And it's a NASTY odor: doesn't take many PPM for neighbors to
notice. Of course, they've also gotten odor complaints on days the
plant is shut down for maintenance.

That whole end of Carthage smells like a Thanksgiving dinner, btw,
24/7 because the ConAgra Butterball Turkey plant is inside the city
limits. The RES plant is located on their property to save on
transport costs. Future plants will be located out in the boonies
where possible.

>300 bbl x 42 gal/bbl = 12600 gal x (assume) 7.8 lbs/gal = 98280 lbs/ 2000
>lbs/ton = 49 tons/ day of "oil."
>
>49 tons of "oil" from 270 tons of offal. Hmmm 18 percent yield. Where is
>the rest of it going?

The conversion efficiency is 80% - 85%. That means for every 100BTU
worth of offal processed, 85BTU worth of oil is produced. The other
15BTU is used to power the process. No other refuse conversion
process produces a net energy return: That is, if 100BTU worth of
feedstock goes in it takes (in most cases) 150-300BTU of energy to
turn it into oil for a net energy LOSS.

>Probably they are just rendering out the fat content and doing a
>transesterification on it n the usual manner.

Nope. The feedstock is ground up and mixed with water to form a
slurry about the consistency of peanut butter. This is put in a 1st
stage reactor chamber that heats it to 500oC under around 800PSI for
15-20 minutes. Under these conditions the water turns into an organic
acid that breaks down the organic molecules into short-strand
hydrocarbon molecules. The pressure is then released suddenly which
causes the water to "flash off" (this is where they're having trouble
with the odor escaping). The remaining organic soup is transferred to
another reactor where it's heated again for a period of time depending
on the feedstock so that methane gas is cooked out. the methane is
pumped off to a cogenerator and used to generate power for the plant.
This is the *only* source of energy for the plant: It's completely
self-sustaining.

The remaining soup is moved off to a cracking reactor where it's
converted into #4 fuel oil and remaining solids are settled out.
Aside from oil you get inorganic chemicals suitable for use as
fertilizer, chemically pure carbon black, and sterile gray water. The
fertilizer is sold to local farmers, the carbon black goes to a
recycling plant, and the gray water is clean enough to pour down a
storm drain. The oil is sold to a local electric co-op. Nothing goes
to waste except the gray water and nothing is landfilled.

The only problem with the plant aside from the occasional stink is
that the turkey offal isn't free. Two years ago because of the "Mad
Cow Scare" the FDA was going to completely ban the use of animal
byproducts in animal feed. This is already the law in Europe because
of all the problems they were having there. However the FDA exempted
poultry because it's not a known source of the prions believed
responsible for Mad Cow. The price of turkey-guts shot through the
roof, so to speak, as an animal feed filler.

ConAgra was going to *give* them the turkey offal so they wouldn't
have to pay the tipping fees to landfill it. Now instead of costing
RES ~$15/bbl it's costing them $80/bbl to produce oil. They're
getting about $55/bbl for the #4; do the math. The fertilizer is
making up some of the difference and the EPA gave them a $15 Million
dollar grant to develop the technology so they're OK for the next
couple of years. But their next TCP plant is going to be in Ireland
because the offal is free.

CWT is building a plant in Colorado to process shredded tires and that
may be profitable. The technology works on any carbon-based
feedstock, yielding varying ratios of oil, fertilizer, carbon black,
and gray water. It's great on municipal waste because it completely
breaks the stuff down and sterilizes it. That's why the EPA got on
board: They are having a hell of a time dealing with the MSW from the
coastal cities now. Inland farmers are starting to reject the stuff
because they've figured out it's still contaminated and not really
safe to spread over their fields.

--
Paleontologists recently announced they have
discovered when Man first discovered language:
Just after he invented the hammer and nail.

And it was BAD language.


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