Homely Scientist

How about this, a portable device about the size of a small moving van that can take garbage, turn it into biofuels, then power an electrical generator.  Now that’s a good use of science!  Okay, okay folks at Purdue developed it for the military first, but they say initial trials were much better than expected and this puppy is about ready to go!  Here’s the scoop:

The tactical biorefinery first separates organic food material from residual trash, such as paper, plastic, Styrofoam and cardboard. The food waste goes to a bioreactor where industrial yeast ferments it into ethanol, a “green” fuel. Residual materials go to a gasifier where they are heated under low-oxygen conditions and eventually become low-grade propane gas and methane. The gas and ethanol are then combusted in a modified diesel engine that powers a generator to produce electricity.

Ladisch and Warner said the machine eventually could be deployed in disaster situations, similar to Hurricane Katrina, or at any crisis location where people are stranded without power. Emergency crews could then use the machine to turn debris such as woodchips into much-needed electricity, Warner said. 

“At any place with a fair amount of food and scrap waste the biorefinery could help reduce electricity costs, and you might even be able to produce some surplus energy to put back on the electrical grid,” he said.

Let’s consider my previous post about gas-fired home generators/heaters and couple it with this bio-refinery generator.  This actually kept me up last night pondering all the amazing possibilities.  Here on Pender there is no landfill.  All garbage is hauled off (by ferry) to a landfill near Victoria.  It costs money ($6 a bag) and fuel (ferry, trucks) and continues to add to the growing landfill.  Victoria is experimenting with tapping into the methane produced in the landfill for power generation, but this is still in testing.  Here is something that small towns and Islands like Pender could really get into.

Think about scaling that puppy up and down.  Make large versions that a small town could use to turn garbage into power that can go back into the grid (and earn the town money) and much smaller version (or maybe a neighborhood version) that a few people could use.  Okay U.S. Army and Purdue let’s get this baby out into commercial production, like yesterday.

Hat tips to Engadget and C|Net

tags: alternative energy, biofuel, power generation

Comments Off