PowerSwitch

Apparently, these dudes have a process that produces fuel from waste, and they claim it has an ERoEI of between 7 and 8 to 1(!) depending on the waste used.

Here's their link:


http://www.global-nrg.biz/

I'd be very interested in hearing what some of you guys here have to say about it, as I don't have enough knowledge.

The 'Net Energy Balance' - the energy put in to produce one gallon of fuel - is 1.25 with ethanol, 3.2 with biodiesel and 7.0 to 8.0 (depending on feedstock) with KDV. This means while ethanol gains 25% and biodiesel 220% energy, KDV gains 700 to 800%!

It's energy from waste materials such as plastic, rubber etc - it isn't renewable.

It's not comparable to the EROEI of biomass etc because the latter are supposed to be renewable sources, with the sun etc as their power source.

This company's process works on materials which are made from fossil fuels and so are very energy dense in the first place.

Andy Hunt wrote:It's energy from waste materials such as plastic, rubber etc - it isn't renewable.

It's not comparable to the EROEI of biomass etc because the latter are supposed to be renewable sources, with the sun etc as their power source.

This company's process works on materials which are made from fossil fuels and so are very energy dense in the first place.

It doesn't tell us exactly how it works but it appears to be useful in using a wide range of starting materials, including biomass, to produce diesel fuel by a catalytic process at low pressure. It can use all sorts of waste products from other processes which means less landfill and less pollution. That's the good news.

The bad news is that it means that rubber and plastic materials, which might have gone into landfill and been available for mining/scavenging in future years, will be used in the near future and converted to carbon dioxide and water fairly soon. That's bad if you think CO2 creates global warming and bad if you want hydrocarbon materials available for a longer time.

I think this sort of ingenuity will contribute to a bumpy plateau of hydrocarbon supply followed by supply falling off a cliff. It attempts to support 'business as usual' while using the waste products that would have allowed a more gradual decline if they stayed available for scavenging later.