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Power Plant Fueled By Nut Shells

Posted by simoniker on from the don't-have-to-be-nuts-to-work-here dept.

sbszine writes "The Sydney Morning Herald is running an article about a green power plant that runs on the discarded shells of macadamia nuts. The power plant, located in Gympie, Queensland, is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 9500 tonnes in its first year of operation."

4 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. Reduction in Co2? by zefod · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My guess is that they would burn the shells of these nuts, right? This produces carbondioxide, so how does this reduce CO2?

  2. Efficiency? by brucmack · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It would be nice to know what the cost efficiency of this plant is... seeing as how this has always been the big problem with "green" power.

    Also, is there any inherent advantage to using macadamia nuts rather than some other biomass?

  3. Thats nothing by mphase · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Watch this process turn your garbage into oil.

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    vampirical
  4. Hello, 1970? by heironymouscoward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is the scene. I'm a young boy, 8 years old, in Dar-es-Salaam, capital of Tanzania. On the horizon sits a squat building with a tall tower, belching some kind of gray-white smoke.

    "Mummy, what's that?"
    "It's a power plant, Heirony"
    "What does it burn, Mummy?"
    "Caschew nut fruits, Heirony"

    The caschew nut grows as a small nut on a huge fruit which is rich and oily. For each of those tiny caschew nuts, a fruit weighing perhaps 500gr is grown, harvested, and then discarded.

    In Tanzania in 1970, and probably still today, these fruits were dried and then burnt for power. Glad to see that some third-world technology had finally made it to the rich west.

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    Ceci n'est pas une signature