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Bio-diesel Made from Sewage
tito writes "A New Zealand company has successfully turned sewage into modern-day gold. New Zealand Herald is reporting that a Marlborough-based Aquaflow Bionomic yesterday announced it had produced its first sample of bio-diesel fuel from algae in sewage ponds.
It is believed to be the world's first commercial production of bio-diesel from 'wild' algae outside the laboratory - and the company expects to be producing at the rate of at least one million litres of the fuel each year from Blenheim by April."
sewage coming out of the tailpipe or french fries?
Finally we are going to be able to use our waste to ease some form of our lives.
I can already think of a slogon- "Waste makes haste"
E85 != Biodiesel.
... well... biologically produced diesel fuel.
E85 is ethanol.
Biodiesel is
Finding other idiots on
How much is that compared to the oil consumption of New Zealand? How many of those factories would be needed to be independent of crude oil and would that be feasible?
to burrito gas powering cars instead of just stinking them up.
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Remember folks - there is not going to be a single replacement for fossil fuels, but many (and lets not forget the other half of the equation - reducing our energy consumption).
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
You can produce bio-diesel from a vast diversity of lifeforms as long as they contain lipids. The real question is to know if a source can be economically viable.
Only reason E-85 costs more in the US is because we make it with corn instead of sugar cane. Brazil based theirs on cane and produce it for about half what it costs for gasoline.
1 Million litres may be a decent start, but it sure isn't much. There's a corn-fuled ethanol producing plant in Kansas that produces 26 million gal of ethanol a year, and that hardly makes a dent (src: popular mechanics). (and yeah I know bio-diesel has a higher BTU then corn-based ethanol, but it still wouldn't reach even close to the output of another alt fuel plant).
If we were smart we would pull a brazil and start producing more corn to use as ethanol. They will be oil-independent by next year. Sugar-based ethanol is something like 8 times more efficient then corn-based. Shows what we know right?
An inventor, Mr. Simpson from Springfield, has invented a new car seatto be used in conjunction with the vehicles that will run on sewage bio-diesel.
Simpson said, "It's just a prototype right now, but it has been my lifelong dream to contribute something truly my own to this bio-movement."
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
My car already runs LIKE shit, now it can run ON shit as well.
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Another reason is that gasprices in the US are incredibly low from a european point of view, mostly due to taxes. Biofuel would be less likely te be as heavily taxed over here, making it cheaper at the gas station.
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Not that this is the reason for using it... but most cars on the road now that can run e85 will not be savign money. e85 is a bit cheaper and your milage is a bit less. The savings (there is some) will be very little. The implications of cutting our oil consumption (from gasoline) by 75 % is HUGE. It's just not a financial thing.
I still haven't found anything that states how large an area/volume of pond they must have in order to produce one million litres/year. It is also interesting to note that they require aerating the pond
My work here is dung.
The UNH Biodiesel Group calculated that algae farms in the Mojave Desert alone could supply enough fuel to replace all the gasoline used in the USA. That was just an example to show the land-area requirements. In practice you would want algae cultivation spread out around the country. (The availability of waste feedstocks around the country is one reason.)
I like biodiesel as a long-term solution for several reasons. . .
Because an air-breathing engine draws much of its "fuel" mass from the air, it starts with a large advantage in energy density, and it will be hard for other energy sources -- batteries, supercapacitors, flywheels -- to ever compete.
Unlike hydrogen, we already have the infrastructure in place to handle, store and distribute biodiesel, and millions of vehicles that can already run off it, and the capacity to economically produce millions more of them.
Producing it from algae mimics the process by which petroleum originally formed, over the eons. It might seem unrealistic to produce enough biofuel on a year-by-year basis to replace the *millions* of years worth of petroleum that we routinely burn without thinking anything of it. . . But the natural processes that created petroleum were haphazard, and hardly what anyone would call efficient.
If you replace haphazard processes with specially selected (maybe genetically engineered) strains of algae kept in controlled conditions, with concentrated feed of nutrients and sunlight, the production capacity could be immense. So yeah, I think it can be done.
We might not ever see dirt-cheap fuel again, but I'm optimistic that we can come up with petroleum alternatives at a level that allows our economy and industry to keep on functioning.
Humans contain lipids.
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I can see the farmers smiling and laughing at what we have all known for years. They now have proof that the more beans you eat the more bio fuel you can produce. So, quit lighting your farts and put them to good use.
This has the be the shittyest idea I have ever heard!
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TDP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerizat ion produces light crude, not biodiesel. It'd work just fine on sewage, in addition to pretty much anything else that contains any lipids, plastics, gums, rubbers, etc. Long carbon chains, basically.
I keep my eye on the company and technology, and am extremely disapointed that the only commercial plant up and running so far is only pumping out approximately 800,000 gallons per year from waste (turkey offal) that's not actually waste because the US government hasn't outlawed using animal products as animal feed.
Then their back of the napkin calculations would be wrong. To replace all the transportation fuels we use in the US, about 25% of what the world uses, would require roughly 15,000 square miles of the Sonora Desert, which is around 120,000 square miles total. This was previously reported on /. and the pilot testing for large scale production has already been completed. More detail and a good overview here.
The funny thing about all this is that the oil producing algae research was first conducted by our very own US Dept. of Energy. And just like Brazil is taking the lead in showing the world how to achieve energy independence, another country is taking our research and showing how to make themselves less dependent on foreign oil. Kind of funny to watch the rest of the world passing us by in energy research, education, and manufacturing while Bubba and his red state buddies think it's just a hoot to haul their gas burning 4 wheelers out to the recreation area in their pickups that get 9 miles to a gallon, which they absolutely have to drive all the time because they need a truck big enough to haul their gas toys on the weekend.
It's like living in a continuous showing of Hee Haw.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
According to the UNH study and Wikipedia, the yield of algae farms is about 5000 to 20,000 gallons per acre of pond per year. This number varies mostly due to the pond conditions, strain of algae used, and oil collection method employed.
However, it is worthwhile to note that even the low end (5000 gallons per acre per year) is over 100 times better than soybeans (50 gallons per acre per year) or rapeseed (about 120 gallons per acre per year)... which are the two dominant crops providing biodiesel in America and Europe today.
To supply the entire US fuel needs would require as little as 0.3% of US land area to be covered by algae ponds. This translates to about 28,000 square kilometers, or about 11,000 square miles. To put this in perspective, that is about 1/8th the size of Kansas... and well less than the area devoted to Soybeans currently.
Self-referential Sigs are cool on /. these days...
54
Okay, so we all know a million liters of fuel isn't much in the grand scheme of things. Worldwide, many billions of gallons and tons of assorted fossil fuels are consumed, which means that a million gallons a year from one facility is pretty small potatoes when stacked up against the fuel demands of the world.
I think we're forgetting that the fuel need not leave town, though. Locally produced bio-fuels could supply limited geographic areas with at least some quantity of cheap fuel, which at least helps whoever lives there. It doesn't have to travel, meaning it retains much more of its value since less energy and effort has to be spent to move it from point 'A' to point 'B', and since a township produces it, a township reaps the benefits, immediately benefitting the local economy. It's like the farmer's market for gas, yaknow?
I have to wonder if anyone here has ever heard the phrase, "Think global, act local." I also have to wonder if anyone here considers that it's pretty stupid to rely on just one source of fuel. Let me lay it out for you, here - we already have an absolutely massive bio-fuel 'portfolio', detailing dozens of ways that businesses and communities can produce useful quantities of bio-deisel and ehtanol, but using just one or two of them probably isn't going to be enough to take oil out of the picture, especially if only a few people give it a shot. Right now, we need to take what we can get, and the ability to produce fuel in the process of purifying wastewater is something nobody should overlook. If nothing else, the cost of water purification could be offset by fuel sales, potentially reducing utility costs.
The following national geographic article describes a company that started this type of thing years ago. They built a plant next to a turkey farm to convert byproducts to oil. My understand is it worked, but was not as efficient as they hoped.
1 25_031125_turkeyoil.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1
What some people on slashdot should be interesting to know is Bush proposed some tax credits for this company in 2004 to help with R&D. It got shot down by the Democrates who literally made fun of Bush and called them "Turkey Credits".
Another is that the crops we produce are net-energy negative. When you use petrolium-based fertalizer, you're putting more stored energy into the crop than you can hope to get out of it, nevermind the energy used in extraction.
Ethanol might be a stop-gap measure, but we cannot rely on it for any long term means. Repeat after me:
Energy is a zero-sum game.
You get out no more than was put in. We are using at a faster rate than it can be replenished. Now, I'm environmentally friendly to a point - I try to remember the two more useful corners of the conservation triangle: "Reduce, Reuse" as well as the third one we all know. I love puppies, and I don't want to kill any spotted owls, etc. But, the only 100 year + solution I see right now is to move to nuclear power. In a sense, you get more from nuclear power than it costs to find it, extract it, etc. Moving all of our gas powered or coal powered lifestyle choices to nuclear power is probably quickly becoming the best option. The environmental impact can be bad on a small local scale for aquatic wildlife wherever a dam needs to be built to accumulate cooling water; but the overall impact will be much less.
sig?
I believe there will be too much environmental pressure from the "naturally occuring" slime that seems to accumulate and even thrive there.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Algae farming actually has the potential of replacing all diesel and gasoline usage in the US using only a tiny fraction of the land area available. There are several cost/benefit analyses of this on the 'net, such as this one. Estimates of algae-biodiesel yield range from 10,000 to 20,000 US gal/acre/year. Soy-diesel has a lower yield, but has some other economically beneficial by-products. Biodiesel is the most promising energy technology I have seen to date. Compare biodiesel to ethanol -- the producers of ethanol find it more economical to burn fossil fuels in ethanol production than the ethanol -- DOH! With the current price of dinofuel around $3/gal, biodiesel is also suddenly cost-competitive, and for about $3000, you can buy a home biodiesel production facility that can manufacture 40 gallons/week at a cost of about 50 cents per gallon plus whatever you have to pay for the oil, and about 2 hours/week in ongoing labor.
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So... instead of an oil shortage, we'll seen have a waste shortage?
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Well, filling a 15 gallon tank on two cars weekly for a year = 1560 gallons. So at 5000 gallons per acre per year, if all the open space of a large half-acre suburban lot were devoted to your personal sewage farm, you could just squeak by. Plus you'd save on home security bills, what with the giant moat of fecal slime surrounding your house. And you'd reduce tension with the neighbors, because you'd welcome your neighbor's dog crapping in your yard.
I still think that HEMP is the way to go.
From 1 acre of hemp you can produce
1300 gal of bio diesel
The equivalent amount of paper as 10 acre's of trees
The equivalent of 5 acres of cotton in cloth.
Hemp Seed flower (For cake, bread, etc)
and
Pulp products that can replace cardboard and many plastic products.
This is from the different parts of the plant. That means that you get ALL of them at the same time. Not just growing corn for fuel and throw away the rest.
Biofuels are about converting solar energy to useful power sources so in that sense there is fast enough replenishment.
As for net energy from energy crops, LCA can be used to calculate the total energy required to produce a litre of transport fuel (petrol or diesel).
This UK study from 2003 found net energy gains from the production of biodiesel.
From that study:
Significant reduction in net CO2 emissions from biodieselIndependence? That's middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth. G.B Shaw
Can't beleive this got accepted when my submission yesterday got rejected. here it is Note: 3.5/gal/day of Diesel from 1 Pig!
Once it is rejected you can't recall it, that is not good. But here is the link: UI researcher makes crude oil from pig manure
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So, the sewage output of a town of 26,000 people can produce 1 million litres of usable fuel. As it was stated above, NZ consumes around 8.8 billion liters of fuel per year. With a population of 4.1 million, that is ~2150 liters of fuel, per person, per year. This plant is producing around 38 litres per person. So they've covered roughly 2% of the fuel use per person. Granted, 2% isn't much, but it is locally produced (removing most of the transportation inefficiencies) and I'm sure it isn't as optimal as it is going to get. It is a start at least. And say you get it to 10%, well that is 10% from something that has just been an eyesore previously.
And that is actually quite a lot of fuel per person. That's around 11 US gallons PER WEEK. I myself use about half that much (I live in the US), so a little energy consumption curbing in NZ could make a large impact on the percentage.
Indeed, this seems to be the mistake most people make regarding nearly all renewable energy generation techniques (which apart from hydro-electric, only make up a tiny fraction of power generation). Most of the plants built up until today have been little more than feasibility projects.
But - as is starting to be seen in some European countries - significant cheap energy contributions can be made when the technology begins to mature and get the sort of level of massive investment traditional energy generation techniques receive. The companies (and the therefore the countries) spearheading the investment also stand to make a lot of money when the technology starts to be installed worldwide.
This could solve the obesity crisis and energy crisis at the same time! Instead of driving around on your fat ass, you'll be driving around on your ass fat! So how much of this untapped resource is there? Let's see:
Should Middle East cut off the tap, it will become the patriotic duty of every overweight person to donate their fat for biodiesel production. We'll no longer have an obesity crisis. We'll have a Strategic Lipid Reserve.
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