Slashdot Mirror
A New Process Turns Sewage Into Crude Oil (newatlas.com)
Big Hairy Ian shares this report from New Atlas:
The U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has found a way to potentially produce 30 million barrels of biocrude oil per year from the 34 billion gallons of raw sewage that Americans create every day... [T]he raw sewage is placed in a reactor that's basically a tube pressurized to 3,000 pounds per square inch and heated to 660 degrees Fahrenheit, which mimics the same geological process that turned prehistoric organic matter into crude oil by breaking it down into simple compounds, only...it takes minutes instead of epochs... The end product is very similar to fossil crude oil with a bit of oxygen and water mixed in and can be refined like crude oil using conventional fractionating plants.
After six years of development, they've licensed the process for a $6 million pilot plant that's expected to launch in 2018.
After six years of development, they've licensed the process for a $6 million pilot plant that's expected to launch in 2018.
To stoop down and pick up a penny takes 1 sec. $.01 for 1 sec is equivalent to $36 per hour pay for 1 second.
I here the same argument for nickels ($180 per hour), dimes ($360 per hour), quarters ($900 per hour), dollar bills ($3,600 dollars per hour), 5 dollar bills ($18,000 per hour). People couldn't be bothered unless we were talking about $20 laying on the ground. ($72,000 per hour).
So let's see 32 million barrels of oil of sewage from 34 billion gallons of sewage. So typical smaller city for a year. (New York produces for perspective 474B gallons per year) 32 million times $44 dollar on the barrel. $1.34 BILLION dollars. (New York would net $18.6B per year vs their $78B budget. Doubt they would be interested.) Yeah I can't think of too many cities that would like those kinds of numbers added to their tax base, considering most cities OWN all the sewage by way of public utility and just already happen to be collecting it and oh yeah already fork out truck loads of money to get rid of it.
Not worth doing you say? Dumb idea you say?