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Subject: permaculture
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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
|
-
[permaculture] Any idea is this is viable?,
Michele May, 08/19/2003
-
Re: [permaculture] Any idea is this is viable?,
Kelly Finigan, 08/19/2003
- RE: [permaculture] Any idea is this is viable?, Michele May, 08/19/2003
-
Re: [permaculture] Any idea is this is viable?,
John Schinnerer, 08/20/2003
-
[permaculture] energy futures was: Any idea is this is viable?,
Kelly Finigan, 08/21/2003
- Re: [permaculture] energy futures was: Any idea is this is viable?, georg parlow, 08/21/2003
-
[permaculture] energy futures was: Any idea is this is viable?,
Kelly Finigan, 08/21/2003
- RE: [permaculture] Any idea is this is viable?, Harold Waldock, 08/22/2003
-
Re: [permaculture] Any idea is this is viable?,
Kelly Finigan, 08/19/2003
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