Shouting into the dark

[spudtater]

[Poll #728257]

Edit: Thanks for all your poll-taking! I shall try to be less insecure now.   8^S
Also, I am concerned about the amount of transformations into newts these days. I must have not properly resanctified Calton hill after that evil devil-worshipper festival.

Comments

[batswing.livejournal.com]

Ribbit!

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Baaaa!

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

Have been mulling over the turket oil thing. Don't think it's a major contender at the moment, mainly because there is a large existing market for turkey guts, $60-80/barrel production costs are only barely viable even in the current oil bubble, and there are logistical issues (running a pipe is very, very cheap, turkey guts have to be trucked.) Also, if you're going to burn the stuff, just burn it as is in a power station, much more efficient. Biomass for small local CHP stations, you know it makes sense. Also for large non-CHP stations.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Thing is, the turkeys aren't burnt. They're more boiled than anything else... And I'm not sure turkey guts would make the best fuel. The water content will be really high, and I'm not sure how much they might pollute.

Those links were interesting, but they were talking about vegetable-only biomass grown specifically for burning. Whereas the turkey-oil people were talking about being able to run their process on complete garbage; plastics, sewage, etc... turning outputs into inputs, in other words.

Truth be told, I'm more excited about this as a waste-management method than as a source of fuel.

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

But the depolymerization process has to drive off the water, too, and so does anyone burning vegetable biomass. And any random crap in the waste is going to end up as random crap in the oil and get in to the air anywhere oil is burnt, as opposed to at one power station where you can put some really stringent filters on the exhaust stream.

I still don't think managing waste by putting it through an expensive process, and then burning it, makes sense. Sewage already is burnt (or rather the dry residue from the settling pools at your local sewage farm - and then they make the ash from that into breeze blocks. Look up the etymology of "breeze" in that sense, it's fascinating.)

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Nah, the process uses the water content of the turkeys as part of the process;

'"The other processes," Appel said, "all tried to drive out water. We drive it in, inside the tank, with heat and pressure. We super-hydrate the material."'

The water can then be drained off during the condensation process. As for the random crap, the claim is then that

'The minerals settle out and are forced to storage tanks. Rich in calcium and magnesium, this dry brown powder is "a perfect balanced fertilizer," Appel said.'

I didn't know that sewage was burnt. Makes sense, though. Do they harness the energy from this process?

Anyway, I presume that this would be the reason that this guy went for turkey guts rather than sewage for his first project. I would have assumed the market for turkey parts would be better than that for excrement, but obviously not.

'Breeze' is apparently from French via Scandinavian, and means 'ash' or 'cinder'.

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

I've downloaded the mp3 but haven't had time to listen to it yet. I'll try to remember to subject Mark to it tomorrow.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

K, thank you!