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  • From: Harold Waldock <haroldw@alternatives.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [permaculture] Any idea is this is viable?
  • Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 18:38:28 -0700

From an economic and energy sense I think it could be viable.
 
Advanced technology called thermal depolimerization is very similar.  A company called Changing world Technologies has a large scale pilot plant converting turkey processing plant wastes to oil at about $15/barrel operating costs only.  An article on it is at:
The company is at http://www.changingworldtech.com/home.html .  This kind of process if it is simple and easy enough to run could easily produce more usable energy than it consumes in the conversion process.  If the input materials are low cost or waste with a tip fee then they could make serious money. Will it solve our energy problems? Well it will make us more efficient use of biological material we throw away.  What was waste can now be converted to oil.  This could generate millions of barrels a year in US alone.  The process is amazingly flexible as it can eat household waste, tires,  plastics computers. Imitate nature and voila oil from organic matter even if it is plastic. 
 
Another company www.shec-labs.com has devised a way to produce hydrogen from a solar dish reflector from water or methane.  Another company in the US New Mexico? Arizona? Sandia Labs researcher? (I've lost the link) has developed a very low cost method of doing that as well - done with parts for $38,000.  It was neat because at the high temp they got hydrogen gas and then they passed the lower temp onto a Stirling engine and generated power.  Hydrogen and Power at the same time - we could use something like that  in the north where one would store the hydrogen from the long summer days for the winter cold. The same small solar reflector technology could power thermal depolimerization as the basics are the same.  Heat to 400 to 800 C and to pressure of several atmospheres add water and platinum or substitutes and cool suddenly and more or less thats it - hydrogen or oil depending on what you want.
 
Is it permaculture? No not yet and it is too complicated and expensive to have in your back yard.  Could this be a community tech in the first world and be permaculture in the future like a biomass heat and power generation station in a village today? Maybe some day.
 
The real question is how do Permaculture Designers design for energy using common sense and common materials in sensible ways?  Occasionally, a design and the client might call for something special in energy then call the experts and the technology as long as it fits in with the whole design and the whole ecology.
 
Harold Waldock
-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Michele May
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 9:04 AM
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Cc: Admin
Subject: [permaculture] Any idea is this is viable?

 Pyrolysis Oils from Biomass

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