Another Use for Our Excessive Waste: Make it Into Gas!
By NunoXEI • Sep 16th, 2008 • Category: Blog
Last week I posted news concerning an alternative energy source derived from human waste–and more particularly our “biosolids”. This has lead, quite randomly and conveniently to another bit of waste-to-energy news I’ve come across. If you thought making energy out of crap was exciting, how about making gasoline out of varied waste products?
An agreement between Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and Byogy Renewables Inc may be bringing a new form of biomass-based gasoline into the commercial market within two years. (cleantechnica.com)
Dr. Kenneth Hall, associate director of TEES, developed what may possibly be the only process of converting biomass directly to high-octane gasoline with colleagues Mark T. Holtzapple, a professor in chemical engineering, and Sergio A. Capareda, a professor in biological and agricultural engineering. Other processes take a third step which usually includes mixing the biomass with alcohol first before converting it into gasoline.
The process makes use of a range of materials including garbage, biosolids from wastewater treatment plants, green waste such as lawn clippings, food waste, and any type of livestock manure.
The team hopes to meet the demands of 2% of the US’s gasoline demand by 2022. It’s a small amount, but it’s a start.
With this I’ll point out another great news story that Gabe Mac, host of MobuzzTV, gave me a heads up about! The Las Vegas Dan Towbin Hummer dealership is dropping the Hummer and turning to the Smart Car and other more environmentally respectable transportation options! (crunchgear.com)
Although this seems to have been primarily a business decision first, it’ll be another happy step to getting more use out of that biosolid gasoline in two years time–so jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon, for whatever reason, is a journey towards a more sustainable future.
… And two highways lanes can fit TWO cars on them side by side once again, as they were meant to do. Get those damned Hummers off the road!
Creative Commons Attribution: “Pumping gas” photo, Flickr, futureatlas.com
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NunoXEI is Co-Founder of TheGreenRocket.com and self proclaimed internet-surfing-guru. You can find his personal blog at NunoXEI.com, the home of his podcast, The Lowdown, his comic-related properties and his webcomic, Republic Domain.
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