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Sounds similar to the thermal depolymerization [1] developed by companies like Changing World Technologies. [2] That technology seems very promising, but they
by ansible 4y ago
Sounds similar to the thermal depolymerization [1] developed by companies like Changing World Technologies. [2]
That technology seems very promising, but they ran into a number of difficulties in practice. They build a plant to process turkey leftovers in Missouri, but the plant wasn't profitable, and the community complained about the smell.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changing_World_Technologies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changing_World_Technologies
- dehrmann 4y agoI went down this rabbit hole for a bit. The only obvious issue seems to be that burying (or burning if you're Swedish) plastic is really, really cheap. For the turkey waste, we're already good at rendering animal remains, so there just isn't a need.
- ansible 4y agoYes. For CWT in specific, the original articles (in popular science magazines like Discover or PopSci) described the desire to process various kinds of plastics, much like the linked article talks about. The methane would be tapped off early, and used the power the production process, with the end product being various kinds of oils. It wasn't clear why CWT decided to pivot to processing turkey waste. They were hamstrung by fluctuating prices for the waste stream, that (IIRC) could be used as an input for fertilizer production.
- hinkley 4y agoI believe they started on the wrong foot. They cheaped out on the welding process and so the whole system was losing pressure and stinky volatiles. They had to redo their entire plumbing and people still complained after they swore up and down that there were no more leaks. which might be improper detection or people are used to a smell and don’t believe it’s gone.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]