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It seems like “burning tires” is very emotionally loaded. Like if there would be a pile of tires on fire. Not quite the same thing to burn them at high tempera

by geon 3y ago

It seems like “burning tires” is very emotionally loaded. Like if there would be a pile of tires on fire. Not quite the same thing to burn them at high temperature in an industrial furnace. Sweden has power plants burning garbage. That’s very far from a dumpster fire.

Bluestrike2 3y ago
The phrase certainly evokes images of the Springfield Tire Fire in The Simpsons. That said, this plant isn't a modern waste-to-energy plant. It's a waste coal plant burning waste coal.[0] Or, put another way, it's a remarkably less-efficient coal plant. A quick search suggests that it's likely just a conventional steam boiler system,[1] rather than a fluidized bed combustion facility or something similar that might be...slightly less terrible. In any case, the facility in question is not going to generate the sort of temperatures you'd see in waste-to-fuel plants. Nor would I expect them to invest the money needed to install equivalent pollution controls given that the plant was already struggling when they bought it. It's just personal curiosity, but I'd love to see the internal discussions from back when they bought the plant in 2021. What kind of bitcoin mining company looks at the amount of electricity they use use and says "we should buy a struggling waste coal power plant that's less efficient than a regular coal plant, produces greater amounts of air pollution, leaves a massive amount of waste ash that still needs disposed of, will still have a higher cost per kWh produced compared to alternatives, and to top it all off, will have some fuel supply issues that require us to try and get regulatory approval to burn tires to make it all work"? Maybe there's an odd confluence of circumstances where the math worked out. I don't know. But I'm really curious what they'd be. 0. https://www.tnonline.com/20210805/company-to-buy-panther-creek-nesquehoning-plant-will-be-used-for-bitcoin-mi/ https://www.tnonline.com/20210805/company-to-buy-panther-cre... 1. https://www.countyoffice.org/panther-creek-energy-facility-nesquehoning-pa-a2f/ https://www.countyoffice.org/panther-creek-energy-facility-n...
- trws 3y ago
  It’s also actually happened. For example this major tire fire in Tracy California https://www.ttownmedia.com/tracy_press/archives/tracing-tracy-territory-the-fire-that-keeps-on-burning/article_e2338fb1-2b3a-5879-9cf2-1ceebc922f5d.html https://www.ttownmedia.com/tracy_press/archives/tracing-trac... It burned for two years. On the semi-ironic upside, its proximity to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the major atmospheric research center there actually proved highly useful for helping model atmospheric behavior of smoke for things like wildfires.

by geon 3y ago

Bluestrike2 3y ago

The phrase certainly evokes images of the Springfield Tire Fire in The Simpsons. That said, this plant isn't a modern waste-to-energy plant. It's a waste coal plant burning waste coal.[0] Or, put another way, it's a remarkably less-efficient coal plant. A quick search suggests that it's likely just a conventional steam boiler system,[1] rather than a fluidized bed combustion facility or something similar that might be...slightly less terrible. In any case, the facility in question is not going to generate the sort of temperatures you'd see in waste-to-fuel plants. Nor would I expect them to invest the money needed to install equivalent pollution controls given that the plant was already struggling when they bought it. It's just personal curiosity, but I'd love to see the internal discussions from back when they bought the plant in 2021. What kind of bitcoin mining company looks at the amount of electricity they use use and says "we should buy a struggling waste coal power plant that's less efficient than a regular coal plant, produces greater amounts of air pollution, leaves a massive amount of waste ash that still needs disposed of, will still have a higher cost per kWh produced compared to alternatives, and to top it all off, will have some fuel supply issues that require us to try and get regulatory approval to burn tires to make it all work"? Maybe there's an odd confluence of circumstances where the math worked out. I don't know. But I'm really curious what they'd be. 0. https://www.tnonline.com/20210805/company-to-buy-panther-creek-nesquehoning-plant-will-be-used-for-bitcoin-mi/ https://www.tnonline.com/20210805/company-to-buy-panther-cre... 1. https://www.countyoffice.org/panther-creek-energy-facility-nesquehoning-pa-a2f/ https://www.countyoffice.org/panther-creek-energy-facility-n...

trws 3y ago
It’s also actually happened. For example this major tire fire in Tracy California https://www.ttownmedia.com/tracy_press/archives/tracing-tracy-territory-the-fire-that-keeps-on-burning/article_e2338fb1-2b3a-5879-9cf2-1ceebc922f5d.html https://www.ttownmedia.com/tracy_press/archives/tracing-trac... It burned for two years. On the semi-ironic upside, its proximity to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the major atmospheric research center there actually proved highly useful for helping model atmospheric behavior of smoke for things like wildfires.