Japanese Invention Turns Plastic Trash into Oil
Akitori Ito demonstrates how to use his invention, which turns waste plastic into crude oil. (image: youtube.com)
One of the reasons plastic disposable water bottles have become the arch-nemeses of environmentalists in recent years is that they are (like all other plastics) made out of crude oil. All those plastic bottles, plastic silverware, plastic toys, etc. use up a lot of oil. The GOOD Magazine blog posted a video from United Nations University on Monday that covered Akinori Ito’s creation of a machine that turns raw plastic trash into a derivation of crude oil.
The machine is incredibly small and portable, and uses only heat and water to extract the raw fuel from all kinds of plastic. As Ito, the CEO of the Blest corporation, explains in the video, the portability of the machine allows him to take it to developing countries with serious trash disposal problems and show schoolchildren that plastic waste can be a valuable commodity. Just like out-of-the ground crude, the oil extracted from plastic can be refined into gasoline, diesel, and kerosene.
Although the fuel from plastic is still a fossil fuel that emits carbon dioxide when burned, it could help reduce the carbon footprint of fuel production by sourcing plastic from population centers near refineries rather than shipping crude great distances.
Just another example of simple but amazing technology that could help power our world AND reduce our carbon footprint while reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. And because it is a potential source of diesel fuel, plastic could soon be a new raw material for making heating oil. The future is now, people!
Thanks, Ito.
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Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: James Cameron Wants to Help, Biofuel Breakthroughs, and Western Wind Power
(image: xkcd.com)
Kevin Costner had his chance to fight the spill. Now James Cameron, director of Avatar and Titanic, wants to help, says Rebecca Keegan at Vanity Fair. Though BP was drilling for oil, not unobtainium, Cameron says his experience with underwater filming gives him the expertise needed to combat the gushing oil. BP didn’t take him up on his offer, so Cameron called them “morons.”
Ecofriend has tallied up 10 breakthroughs in the production of biofuels. Many of the breakthroughs have been covered here at HeatingOil.com, but to see them listed shows the diversity of technological advances in biofuels. Coolest sounding? Nanofarming. Grossest looking? The gribble. (Click through for a more close-up view of a gribble than you would ever want.)
A new report from the Department of Energy says that wind power may be more promising than previously thought for the western United States, says the New York Times’ Green blog. Wind energy could provide up to 30 percent of electricity for Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming. The key that the study found was that those states could avoid the major pitfall of wind power—what do you do when the wind stops blowing?—by coordinating utilities operations across such a large geographic area. The wind might stop in one place, but it will be blowing somewhere in those five states.
New Tidal Energy Source Could Produce More Power at Lower Cost Than Wind Turbines
Computer illustration of the Deep Green tidal power system showing three kites. (image: good.is)
A promising new development in renewable energy has appeared in the form of a kite, according to the online magazine GOOD. Swedish startup Minesto has created an underwater tidal energy system whose principal component is a broad-winged kite with a rudder and turbine attached to its body.
The kites that make up a technology dubbed “Deep Green” by its creators work like this: as tides move water over the kites, which are tethered to the ocean floor or to an anchor on the surface, it creates a lift force that causes the kites to move through the water in a figure-8 pattern. The motion of the kites accelerates the rotation of their turbines, generating 10 times more energy than would the motion of seawater by itself. Andrew Price at GOOD summed up the impressive efficiency of the Deep Green system:
The average American home uses about 11,040 kilowatt-hours each year. So one of these kites, working for an hour, could supply about two weeks worth of power for the average home.
The kite system appears to be the most efficient and cost-effective design of tidal energy systems, especially since the design of the kites is relatively simple and requires very few moving parts.
Tidal power is an especially promising green energy source because tides, unlike wind and sunlight, are eminently reliable, following a predictable pattern of motion every day, regardless of location, time of year, or weather conditions.
So next time you see a kite rising and diving through the sky, you could just be looking at the next source of super-efficient renewable energy.
Watch a video of Minesto demonstrating its Deep Green technology:
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The Simpsons Get off the Grid With Wind Power
The Simpsons admire their home wind turbine. (image: hulu.com)
In honor of the 40th Earth Day (last Thursday, April 22), Homer and the rest of the Simpsons clan got into the green energy game. On Sunday’s episode of The Simpsons (titled “The Squirt and the Whale,”on Fox), a huge electric bill prompts the family to attend the Alternative Energy Expo, where a Danish pitchman sells them a wind turbine to power their home.
The Simpsons’ experiment in alternative energy leads them to discover some real-life costs and benefits of wind power. They find that their home turbine contributes electricity to their local power grid in an arrangement that allows them to sell energy to their utility and significantly reduce their bills. They also learn, however, that wind power is only as reliable as the wind—when the air is still, their green power source stops producing electricity.
As is often the case, this episode of The Simpsons uses humor and hyperbole to bring attention to a burgeoning social trend. Wind (“A kite’s best friend, the flag’s partner in patriotism…you’ve seen cherubs blow it from map corners!”) power, along with solar power, geothermal heat pumps, and other clean energy technologies are increasingly attractive options for cost-conscious and green-minded Americans. But as our favorite yellow family’s experience shows, no one green power source is right for everyone.
Maybe Homer will build a biodiesel distillery in his garage for next year’s Earth Day episode.
Watch the full episode for a limited time on hulu.com.
Cape Wind, MA’s Offshore Wind Farm, Finally Approved
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, flanked by Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, announces the approval of the Cape Wind project. (image: examiner.com)
After nine years of environmental and political challenges, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approved the Cape Wind project, reported the Boston Globe. Cape Wind would be the first offshore wind farm to serve the US, but Salazar promised that many more would follow.
Complaints from two Wampanoag tribes caused the most recent delay in the approval of the plan. The Wampanoag claimed that the wind turbines would impede their religious observances associated with watching the sunrise and could disturb burial grounds that had been onshore before the sea level rose thousands of years ago.
Salazar said he had asked for changes that would accommodate the needs of the Wampanoag and other opponents of Cape Wind:
I am convinced there is a path we can take forward that both honors our responsibility to protect historical and cultural resources and at the same time meets the need to repower our economy with clean energy produced from wind power.
According to Salazar, the Cape Wind project will create jobs (1,000 in the construction alone), reduce carbon emissions, and produce the same amount of energy as a medium-sized power plant.
Politicians in Massachusetts were split on the decision. Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, said the approval of the Cape Wind project would allow Massachusetts to “lead the nation” into energy independence and a future of clean energy. Sen. Scott Brown, a Republican, opposed the decision on the grounds that “the Cape Wind project will jeopardize industries that are vital to the Cape’s economy, such as tourism and fishing.”
Despite the Interior Department’s approval, the fight over Cape Wind is not over. The New York Times reports that the wind farm’s opponents, including the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, plan to go to court to halt the project. While construction of the wind farm could conceivably begin as early as this year, legal challenges could delay the project for years to come.
Stationary Bikes Are Latest Source of Renewable Energy at Danish Hotel, Arizona Jail
An iPhone measures the amount of electricity generated by pedaling. This is on the bikes at the hotel, not the jail. (image: guardian.co.uk)
Guests at the Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers have the chance to earn a free meal if they produce 10 watt hours of electricity by pedaling an electricity-generating stationary bike, reported the Guardian on Wednesday. The Copenhagen hotel wasn’t the first to implement such technology, though; CBS News reported that the Tent City Jail in Phoenix, AZ started a program last week that makes female inmates pedal if they want to watch TV.
Pedaling an electricity-generating bike produces only a minor amount of energy. It takes about an hour of cycling at Copenhagen’s Crown Plaza to produce 100 watt hours, the amount of energy necessary to power a 100-watt light bulb for one hour, so the exercise is doing more for the guest’s health and awareness of energy use than it is for the 366-room hotel’s utility bill. Luckily for guests, it only takes about six minutes to earn the free meal. For inmates at Tent City, an hour of pedaling runs a TV for about the same length of time. If they slow down, they generate less electricity and the TV might stop.
So far the experience is only available to environmentally minded world travelers and women incarcerated in Phoenix, but when luxury hotels and prisons find themselves embracing the same technology it could signal the beginning of a trend.
Atlantis of Tomorrow: Architects Design Green-Powered Underwater City
The waterscraper: walk out your front door, go for a swim (but watch out for sharks). (image: inhabitat.com)
One of the concerns for the future of our civilization in coming centuries is that we will eventually run out of inhabitable land. To prepare for this eventuality, a group of architects has designed the “waterscraper,” a mostly-submerged structure that provides space for working and living, powered by renewable sources.
Last month, inhabitat.com reported on the design, which was created by Sarly Adre Bin Sarkum for the eVolo Skyscraper Competition. The waterscraper is designed to be a fully self-sufficient floating city that relies on wind, solar, and wave power combined with a small above-water forest to grow food and oxygen.
Looks like tight living space, but the views would be awesome.
Maine Heating Oil Group Clarifies Opposition to Wind Power Bill
Wind power could be the future of Maine’s energy, but the Maine Energy Marketers Association thinks that decision should be left to consumers. (image: consumerenergyreport.com)
Maine’s suppliers of heating oil, propane, and other heating and transportation fuels have taken issue with “recent headlines” that cast them as opponents of offshore wind power, and the president of the Maine Energy Marketers Association, Jamie Py, penned an op-ed for Thursday’s Morning Sentinel that explained the group’s position.
The Maine Energy Marketers Association appears to have in mind a March 12 article in the Portland Press Herald that carried the headline, “Oil Dealers: Offshore Wind Plan a Mistake.” According to the Press Herald, heating oil dealers were the primary opponents at a hearing that debated the “bold” and “futuristic” plan to convert much of Maine’s energy use from fossil-fuel sources to electricity produced by offshore wind turbines.
Py insists that Maine’s energy marketers are not opposed to the development of offshore wind power as such; rather, they object to one specific provision of an offshore energy bill (LD 1810, Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Offshore Energy Task Force) that would allocate taxpayer money to incentives for residents to convert their heating systems from heating oil, propane, or natural gas to electricity.
Py lays out three objections to the provision: it would encourage people to convert to an energy source (electricity) that is more expensive than heating oil, it would harm the energy marketers who employ 12,000 people in Maine, and it would reduce consumers’ ability to make their own choices about how to spend money on their heating systems.
Price is always a major concern for consumers, and according to Py the current electricity rate is 15 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is the equivalent of $5.25 for a gallon of heating oil—well above the average cost that Py quotes for 2010 so far, which is $2.80 a gallon. Electricity produced by offshore wind power could carry even higher costs.
The Maine Energy Marketers Association is, of course, concerned about its own well-being, but Py makes the case that Maine’s energy marketers are an important part of the state’s economy. Energy marketers provide 12,000 jobs while offering a variety of heating options for consumers (heating oil, propane, wood biomass, biofuels), and support the development of homegrown biomass and biofuel industries. Py also points to developments in the heating oil industry—more efficient heating equipment, the increasing use of biodiesel blends for home heating—to support his claim that the carbon emissions from heating have already been cut by 40 percent in the last 30 years, and could be cut by an additional 20 to 40 percent.
Lastly, Py opposes the use of subsidies to promote electric heat, and argues that it takes the choice out of consumers’ hands. Whether heating oil or electricity heats Maine’s homes in the future should be up to residents who “should be able to make that choice based on competition in the market.”
Proponents of the wind power bill have rejoinders to all of Py’s objections. To them, the widespread use of heating oil makes Maine residents victims of price fluctuations in the oil markets, and the investment in wind power will create jobs and revenue that would offset jobs and revenue lost by energy marketers.
Because no one can say for sure what prices will be in the future—whether Mainers heat with heating oil or electricity—it’s nearly impossible to say what the long-term impact could mean for heating oil users’ bottom lines. Wind power advocates worry about soaring oil prices and think that wind power, with some initial help from subsidies, can become an affordable and renewable source of home heating. They could be right. But they could also be wrong.
If Maine does embark on a widespread shift from home heating oil to electric heat, the transition is bound to be painful and lead to higher energy costs, even with incentives. Whether those prices would ever come down is anyone’s guess.
Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: T. Boone Pickens’s Latest Investment, Scottish Wave Power, and Atomic Cars
T. Boone Pickens made his money in oil, but his latest investment venture is in water rights. (image: conservationreport.wordpress.com)
T. Boone Pickens made billions in the oil business and then turned his attention to natural gas and wind power, making him an unlikely figure in the environmental movement. Now he’s looking at water, says Shiela McNulty at Energy Source, a blog of the Financial Times. Pickens “is now the US’ biggest private holder of permitted groundwater rights,” and as water resources become scarce he could stand to make another billion.
Wave power is a potentially promising source of renewable energy, but it’s also a potential bust. Either way, Scotland’s making a big investment, reports Chris Morrison on BNET’s Energy blog, putting $4 billion into 10 different wave and tide projects. It’s a big gamble, but if Scotland pulls it off it could show the way for everyone else.
The North Pacific is home to a four-million-ton gooey mess of plastic that may be impossible to clean up. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying, and Alyssa Danigelis at Discovery News reports that Project Kaisei is trying not only to capture the debris but figure out how to turn it into fuel.
Could you ever drive a nuclear-powered car? In a roundabout way, yes, says Bruce Mulliken at the website Green Energy News. If the future of driving turns out to be electric cars, then your car will actually be powered by whatever energy source generates that electricity—in some cases, that could be nuclear power.
Rural China Pioneers Community Power from Biogas
The biogas-burning community of Fenghuang is in China's Sichuan Province. (image: z.about.com)
As China’s economy continues to grow at a breakneck pace, so does its thirst for energy. To meet this exponential increase in demand, China has turned primarily to coal, a dirty but cheap natural resource that the nation possesses in abundance. Coal powers the vast majority of China’s electrical plants, and is also used by millions of rural homes as a cooking and heating fuel. The industrial and residential burning of massive amounts of coal releases CO2 and other byproducts that contribute to global warming and adversely affect respiratory health.
For its part, one rural village in China’s Sichuan province has found a green energy source that replaces coal for its heating and cooking needs: biogas. As Reuters reported on March 4, the farming community has pioneered a system in which local plant waste is processed into biogas that is then piped into residents’ homes for heating and cooking. The biogas is similar to methane (which is the main component of natural gas) and is derived from the fermentation of biomass such as grasses or corn stalks. Combustion of biogas produces far fewer greenhouse emissions and none of the particulate emissions that come from burning coal.
While intense demand for electricity in China’s urban centers requires burning coal, wide availability of biomass and heavier reliance on gas fuel holds promise for expanding biogas use in China’s rural areas.
Perhaps if biogas proves to be a success throughout rural China, we could see biogas use growing in the rural US.
Watch a video of the Reuters report from New Tang Dynasty Television:
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Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: When Exxon Loved Solar, Gazprom Disses Shale Gas, and Nuclear Hydrocarbons
On the left, one of the winners of a solar power design contest held by Exxon, as featured in a 1977 advertisment. (image: greentechhistory.com)
At HeatingOil.com we’ve reported on oil majors making a move to invest in renewable energy, but apparently this is an older trend than we realized. Alexis Madrigal’s blog, Inventing Green, shows an Exxon advertisement (partially pictured above) from 1977 that features the 10 winners of a design contest for solar-powered housing.
Gazprom, the Russian natural gas giant, had planned to expand into the US market, but the expansion of shale gas production in the US has proven to be an obstacle. The company isn’t too worried, though. As Rowena Mason of London’s Telegraph reports, Gazprom’s exports chief, Alexander Medvedev agrees with environmentalists that shale gas drilling is a “danger to drinking water.” He added that is was “unimaginable” that Europe would allow such dangerous drilling practices.
Controversy has surrounded shale gas drilling, but Vincent Fernando of Business Insider reports on a new oil shale drilling technology being investigated that would take center stage in the nightmares of the green movement. It’s called the “nuclear-assisted hydrocarbon production method,” and would take advantage of the incredible heat released by spent nuclear fuel rods to extract oil trapped in shale formations. If hydrofracking worries you, the combination of nuclear power and oil drilling might seem like Frankenstein’s monster come to life, but it could also open up oil fields three times larger than Saudi Arabia’s and prevent nuclear proliferation by creating a use for nuclear rods.
The “sOccket” Is Both Soccer Ball and Portable Electric Generator
One of the developers of the sOccket demonstrates its use to children in South Africa. (image: soccket.com)
Instead of burning kerosene, play soccer. That’s the plan four students from Harvard have for the sOccket, a soccer ball that generates electricity during normal game play and stores it for later use, reports the Green Inc. blog of the New York Times. The sOccket could have an especially large impact in developing nations where electricity is not readily available and people rely on kerosene lamps. Fifteen minutes of play can create enough electricity to power a light for three hours.
Displacing kerosene with electricity is not just a win for clean energy, it’s a victory for public health. When burned indoors, kerosene fumes can have the same impact as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.
The ball works by using technology similar to that found in flashlights that can be charged by shaking them, and the global popularity of soccer means that the balls could find use in many places where access to electricity is scarce. While the sOccket will not solve the world’s energy problems, it’s one of a number of ingenious developments to capture and store energy.
Flywheels Show Promise for Storage of Renewable Energy
Diagram of a room stocked with flywheel energy storage devices. (image: cogeneration.net)
One of the big challenges for solar or wind power is that they are intermittent, not constant. The sun only shines half the hours at best (not even counting clouds or rain), and similarly, the wind does not blow continuously. To make these energy sources more practical, efficient power storage is necessary; you need to be able to top up the “battery” when the power is on and then use it to provide electricity at night, on overcast days, or when the air is still.
As reported by the New York Times Monday, a Massachusetts company thinks it has a solution to the problem of energy storage: flywheels.
A flywheel is a nothing more than a heavy wheel that rotates or spins freely. If you connect it the right kind of dual-purpose electric motor—some electric motors, like the ones in hybrid and electric cars, can function as both motors and generators—you can use the motor to spin the flywheel up to speed when there’s a surplus of power. Then, when you need energy, you slow down the wheel and convert its momentum back to electricity. If the wheel is heavy enough and spinning fast enough—the ones that Beacon Power is installing near Albany, New York, weigh a ton each and spin up to 16,000 times a minute (267 times a second)—you can store an enormous amount of energy in them.
Energy Consultants: Fossil Fuel Use to Change Little by 2034
According to Black & Veatch, in 2034 windmills like these won’t provide much more energy than they do now. (image: media.supereco.com)
What will America’s fossil fuel consumption look like two decades into the future? Not much different from the picture today, to listen to the predictions in a set of findings by energy consulting firm Black & Veatch. The New York Times Green Inc. blog picked up the story yesterday, summarizing the firm’s findings with a minimum of commentary.
According to Black & Veatch, by 2034 our dependence on coal, oil, and natural gas will have declined less than 10 percent—from 76 percent to 68 percent of the total. Renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal will account for that decline, growing from 5 percent now to 13 percent. Coal plants supplying electricity will decline, but this will occur primarily because of the retirement of aging infrastructure, not due to any major shift in usage.
China and CA Startup Strike Deal for Solar Thermal Power Plant
PS10, a solar thermal plant in Spain developed by Solucar. (image: afloresm via flickr.com)
China’s efforts to lead the world in the “green revolution” continue unabated. On Monday, BNET reported that a Chinese company (tediously known as the China Shandong Penglai Electric Power Equipment Manufacturing Co.) has recently signed a $5 billion deal with southern California startup eSolar to build what eSolar CEO Bill Gross claims is “the biggest solar-thermal deal ever.”
ESolar, which is the first company of its type to work in China, is contracted to build a 2000-megawatt solar thermal power plant that will be capable of powering millions of homes.
Solar thermal power, which uses mirrors to reflect sunlight onto water and create energy with the resulting steam, is yet to have a significant impact in the United States. However, if eSolar’s China project proves successful and lucrative, we could possibly see more American homes powered by the sun in the future.
Biomass Subsidy Faces Opposition From Wood Products Industry
Sawdust: the unlikely commodity sought after by the biofuel and wood products industries. (image: thedailygreen.com)
In the world of government subsidies, there are good intentions and unintended consequences. The good intention was Congress’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program, designed to convert wood shavings and plant waste into renewable energy. The unintended consequences are pitting sawmill and lumber wholesalers against composite wood manufacturers for cheap wood byproducts, reports the Washington Post.
The Biomass Crop Assistance Program, a relatively small provision that was a part of Congress’s 2008 farm bill, has grown into a half-a-billion dollar subsidy that provides an incentive for sawmills and lumber mills to sell their leftovers wood byproducts to be converted into biofuel. So-called second-generation biofuels, like biofuel made from wood scraps or cellulosic ethanol made from the husks and leaves of corn, are extremely promising because they does not compete with any food source, unlike corn ethanol or soy-based biofuel.
Massive Solar Updraft Energy Project Planned For Arizona
Solar tower illustration. (image: blog.yaaqui.com)
“Massive solar updraft…” if you say that with the right Dr. Evil intonation, it sounds like you’re describing a Bond villain’s latest doomsday scheme. However, what it really is a way of capturing solar energy using man-made wind.
As reported by Inhabit.com on Wednesday, an Australian company hopes to build a pair of 2,400 foot towers, surmounting four square miles of glassed-in greenhouse in the Arizona desert, to pump out 200 megawatts of clean, renewable power. The idea is simple: hot air rises. Heat enough air, and the resulting updraft—basically a vertical wind, familiar to anyone who’s used a fireplace and felt the pull of air being drawn up the chimney—can turn turbines to produce electricity.
Tobacco Could Be the Next Source of Biofuel
Tobacco leaves. Today’s second-hand smoke producers may be tomorrow’s biofuel. (image: tradeindia.com)
One day, burning tobacco could be good for your health. At least that’d be the case if researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia get their way. As reported Tuesday by USA Today, they believe that tobacco could be a good source for biofuel, including biodiesel and biofuel heating oil.
Scientists have discovered how to tweak tobacco’s genes to increase its production of oil by up to 20 times. That would make it an excellent stock for conversion to biofuel. Moreover, as one of the authors of the research study noted, “tobacco is very attractive as a biofuel because the idea is to use plants that aren’t used in food production.” That way, biofuel production doesn’t compete or conflict with growing crops to eat.
Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: Weather Maps, Garbage to Fuel, and Tidal Energy
(image: Thomas Boldt, The Calgary Sun via cagle.com)
It’s cold out there. You’ve probably noticed, because it’s cold pretty much everywhere. Freezing weather has bumped up the price of heating oil and crude oil, and Morgan Downey has an impressive array of colorful maps at his blog Scarce Whales that show how much colder than normal it is not just in the US, but also in Europe and northeast Asia, which are also large markets for heating fuel.
To combat heating costs, you might be trying to make your home more energy efficient, or at least turning down the heat at night. If you do, you’re already smarter than Morgan Stanley, which until last year kept its skyscraper in Times Square at the same toasty temperature at 3:00 am as it did at 3:00 pm, reports Russell Gold at the Wall Street Journal’s Environmental Capital blog. They had to hire the energy-efficiency specialists at EnerNOC Inc. to teach them to lower the thermostat at night and turn off bathroom fans when the building was empty. Unfortunately, you probably won’t see the savings that Morgan Stanley did—energy-efficiency measures saved them $100,000.
Is it just me, or is green technology getting grosser? Wind turbines look cool, but getting energy from cow manure? Or biofuel from sewage? Awfully resourceful, but still, blech. Now ABC News has a report from the AP’s Jason Dearen on a California landfill that’s capturing the methane released by garbage and turning it into liquid natural gas. Sure, we’ve already covered the Altamont landfill’s LNG program at HeatingOil.com (ahem), but the work by the AP and ABC is still worth a read.
For a reminder that green tech can also be awesomely futuristic, Ocean Power Magazine has us covered. A company called SeaKinetics has developed the HydroWing, which converts the energy of the tides into electricity. SeaKinetics envisions a whole underwater farm of HydroWings feeding an underwater power substation. It’s not all Jules Verne, though—people still get to live on solid ground.
Ex-Secretary of California EPA Argues for Poop Power
According to Tamminen, this is a valuable energy source. (image: personal.psu.edu)
One man’s trash is another’s treasure, so the saying goes. According to Terry Tamminen, former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, one man’s poop may be another’s power supply. In an op-ed for CNBC this week, Tamminen argues for a sustainable energy policy that includes making use of waste products of many kinds—including human and animal ones. At issue is the question of renewable portfolio standards (RPS), which set legal thresholds for how much alternative energy—wind, solar, geothermal—must be included in the power supply. RPS systems are currently in place in 27 states and D.C, and California’s are the most comprehensive, calling for 33 percent of the state’s total energy consumption to be sustainably generated by 2020. To avoid creating a competitive market based in practices that should really be eliminated, as in energy derived from burning trash or even co-generation using heat from traditional power plants, RPS legislation does not currently allow for waste products of any kind to be included as “renewable” resources. Elimination isn’t going to be eliminated anytime soon, though, which leaves agricultural areas and municipalities overburdened with sewage and manure that currently isn’t worth….well, you know.
The average cow generates 18 gallons of waste per day—that’s just one cow, now think of all the hundreds of thousands of cows (and pigs, and sheep, and chickens) in farms and feedlots all across this country. Many such operations are so oversupplied with manure that they wind up funneling it into fetid ponds that stink up the surrounding countryside, contaminate groundwater, and release pounds of greenhouse gases. So, not only would repurposing all that poop create a steady stream of available energy, but it would also remove a fairly major contributor to climate change. Converting human sewage systems to a no-waste model would also save countless gallons of water every year, as well as the energy required to transport, treat and dispose of it.
Of course, entrepreneurs all over have already realized the potential of this unlikely market. There are scores of projects already underway across the country, many of which we’ve covered here on HeatingOil.com: Some of the most promising technologies include methane capture, fuel made from manure, and sewage used as a growth medium for algae that can be converted into biofuel. There is also the looming possibility of federal EPA regulation of methane from farming, under the EPA’s new endangerment finding that allows for greater policing of gases that contribute to global warming. Tamminen’s argument is that reclassifying human and animal waste as renewable would open up the possibility of tax credits to help develop existing programs, and to generate hundreds of others. Think of it as the fertilizer that will grow our new, greener, energy grid.
