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| 11/22 |
| 2008/2/7-11 [Science/GlobalWarming] UID:49087 Activity:kinda low |
2/7 Garbage Dump in the Ocean:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2xx234 (independent.co.uk)
\_ Before long, we'll be trawling all that plastic and
converting it to oil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization
\_ How much energy is needed to collect that waste out of the
water and haul it to a processing facility?
\_ Ah, thermal depolymerization, old news, that was
three "going to solve all energy problems" ago by now.
\_ TDPM is capable of producing oil at $80/bbl. It
wasn't economical before, now it is. Whether
there is enough available biomass to feed it or
not, it's a much better alternative than ethanol
currently is.
\_ Go look and see how well that turkey processing plant is
doing today.
\_ The problem will solve itself, and if it doesn't, we can
just move away. -dim #1 fan
\_ Yeah, I'm waiting for the Invisible Hand to clean up this mess.
\_ It's not like government prevented it. So what good is
government then? Government can't even do the jobs that it
is supposed to be good for, regulating "the commons".
\_ The Invisible Hand vs. The Tragedy of the Commons!
Round 1! Fight! |
| 11/22 |
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| preview.tinyurl.com/2xx234 -> www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html By Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent, and Daniel Howden Tuesday, 5 February 2008 A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said. The vast expanse of debris - in effect the world's largest rubbish dump - is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan. Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or "trash vortex", believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: "The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States." Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer and leading authority on flotsam, has tracked the build-up of plastics in the seas for more than 15 years and compares the trash vortex to a living entity: "It moves around like a big animal without a leash." When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic. "The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic," he added. The "soup" is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk - which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags - is thrown off ships or oil platforms. Mr Moore, a former sailor, came across the sea of waste by chance in 1997, while taking a short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race. He had steered his craft into the "North Pacific gyre" - a vortex where the ocean circulates slowly because of little wind and extreme high pressure systems. He was astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of miles from land. "Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by," he said in an interview. Mr Moore, the heir to a family fortune from the oil industry, subsequently sold his business interests and became an environmental activist. He warned yesterday that unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, the plastic stew would double in size over the next decade. Professor David Karl, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, said more research was needed to establish the size and nature of the plastic soup but that there was "no reason to doubt" Algalita's findings. "After all, the plastic trash is going somewhere and it is about time we get a full accounting of the distribution of plastic in the marine ecosystem and especially its fate and impact on marine ecosystems." Professor Karl is co-ordinating an expedition with Algalita in search of the garbage patch later this year and believes the expanse of junk actually represents a new habitat. Historically, rubbish that ends up in oceanic gyres has biodegraded. But modern plastics are so durable that objects half-a-century old have been found in the north Pacific dump. "Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere," said Tony Andrady, a chemist with the US-based Research Triangle Institute. Mr Moore said that because the sea of rubbish is translucent and lies just below the water's surface, it is not detectable in satellite photographs. According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food. Plastic is believed to constitute 90 per cent of all rubbish floating in the oceans. The UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic, Dr Eriksen said the slowly rotating mass of rubbish-laden water poses a risk to human health, too. Hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets, or nurdles - the raw materials for the plastic industry - are lost or spilled every year, working their way into the sea. These pollutants act as chemical sponges attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. "What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. |
| en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization The Thermal Conversion Process is another name for thermal depolymerisation. A company called Renewable Environmental Solutions (RES) was formed as a joint venture between ConAgra foods and CWT to operate the plant at Carthage and the name of the process was changed. EnerTech operates the "SlurryCarb" process, which uses similar technology to decarboxylate wet solid biowaste, which can then be physically dewatered and used as a solid fuel called E-Fuel. Thermal depolymerisation differs in that it contains a hydrous process followed by an anhydrous cracking / distillation process, although upgrading of the raw HTU product is also possible. Brian S Appel (CEO of CWT) took the technology in 2001 and expanded and changed it into what is now referred to as TCP and has applied for several patents (see, for example, published patent application US 2004/0192980). offal as the feedstock, the process proved to have yield efficiencies of approximately 85%; in other words, the energy contained in the end products of the process is 85% of the energy contained in the inputs to the process (most notably the energy content of the feedstock, but also including electricity for pumps and natural gas for heating). Alternatively, if one considers the energy content of the feedstock to be free (ie, waste material from some other process), one could consider the energy efficiency of the process to be 560% (85 units of energy made available for 15 units of energy consumed). The company claims that 15 to 20% of feedstock energy is used to provide energy for the plant. The remaining energy is available in the converted product. As these energy efficiencies include the energy cost to produce the feedstock and the above TDP energy efficiency does not, these values are not directly comparable. The process breaks down almost all materials that are fed into it. The article stated, "The machine is a microwave emitter that extracts the petroleum and gas hidden inside everyday objects--or at least anything made with hydrocarbons, which, it turns out, is most of what's around you. Every hour, the first commercial version will turn 10 tons of auto waste--tires, plastic, vinyl--into enough natural gas to produce 17 million BTUs of energy (it will use 956,000 of those BTUs to keep itself running)." edit Carthage plant products The yield from one ton (907kg) of turkey waste is 600 pounds (272 kg) petroleum, 100 pounds (45 kg) butane/methane, and 60 pounds ( 27kg ) minerals. In addition, the water is recycled back into the system for reuse. The Carthage, MO plant produces API 40+, a high value crude oil comparable to diesel fuel. PONA wt%, D-5443 method Paraffins 22 % Olefins 14 % Naphthenes 3 % Aromatics 6 % C14/C14+ 55 % TOTAL 100 % The fixed carbon solids produced by the TDP process have multiple uses as a filter, a fuel source and a fertilizer. heavy metals from the samples by converting them from their ionized or organometallic forms to their stable oxides which can be safely separated from the other products. In failing to mention the latter, Changing World Technologies tend to overestimate the potential benefit that the country may reap from wide-scale implementation of the process. edit Current status Reports in 2004 claimed that the facility was selling products at 10% below the price of equivalent oil, but its production costs were low enough that the plant produced a profit. At the time it was paying for turkey waste (see also below). The plant then consumed 270 tons of turkey offal (the full output of the turkey processing plant) and 20 tons of egg production waste daily. According to a 2/1/2005 article by Fortune Magazine, the Carthage plant was producing about 400 barrels per day of crude oil. In April 2005 the plant was reported to be running at a loss. Further 2005 reports summarized some economic setbacks which the Carthage plant encountered since its planning stages. It was thought that concern over mad cow disease would prevent the use of turkey waste and other animal products as cattle feed, and thus this waste would be free. As it turned out, turkey waste may still be used as feed in the United States, so that the facility must purchase that feed stock at a cost of $30 to $40 per ton, adding $15 to $20 per barrel to the cost of the oil. The above cost of production also excludes the operating cost of the thermal oxidizer and scrubber added in May 2005 in response to odor complaints (see below). A biofuel tax credit of roughly $1 per US gallon (26 /L) on production costs was not available because the oil produced did not meet the definition of "biodiesel" according to the relevant American tax legislation. Energy Policy Act of 2005 specifically added thermal depolymerization to a $1 renewable diesel credit, which became effective at the end of 2005. As reported on 04/02/2006 by Discover Magazine, the Carthage plant was producing 500 barrels a day of oil made from 270 tons of turkey guts and 20 tons of pig fat. A federal subsidy (the Energy Policy Act of 2005) allowed a profit of $4/barrel of output oil. edit Company expansion The company has explored expansion in California, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and is presently examining projects in Europe, where animal products cannot be used as cattle feed. Since the plant is located only four blocks from the tourist-attracting town center, this has strained relations with the mayor and citizens of Carthage. According to a company spokeswoman, the plant has received complaints even on days when it is not operating. edit Status as of December 2007 A May 2003 article in Discover magazine stated, "Appel has lined up federal grant money to help build demonstration plants to process chicken offal and manure in Alabama and crop residuals and grease in Nevada. Also in the works are plants to process turkey waste and manure in Colorado and pork and cheese waste in Italy. He says the first generation of depolymerization centers will be up and running in 2005. In the circuit court of Jasper country, Missouri, at Carthage "The company said it has finished installation of a thermal oxidizer and upgraded odor scrubber system that were ordered as part of a consent agreement with the city and the Missouri attorney general's office." |