U.S. Army to Generate Electricity from Kitchen Waste
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03.13.08
San Francisco Gate reports that the US Army is preparing to deploy to Iraq two 4-ton "tactical biomass refineries" designed to turn piles of trash into electricity. "Each can run for 20 hours on a ton of trash, producing enough power to light a small village."
The novel machines were built by defense contractors and Purdue University scientists as part of the Army's push to reduce troops' diesel fuel use in Iraq, where convoys are frequently targeted by insurgents.
The design sounds quite elegant, yet it is complex; so the first step is to field test the prototype in Iraq.
Nate Mosier, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering who is overseeing the work at Purdue, said the refineries are unique in their ability to burn multiple fuels at once. They're also portable, designed to fit snugly into a standard shipping container.The trash-to-energy process begins when unfiltered garbage is fed into a chute, falling into a grinder that chews the trash into small pieces.
Organic food waste heads to a bioreactor where an industrial fermenting process produces ethanol. In another chamber, plastic, cardboard and other trash items are heated to create low-grade propane or methane.
Those gases and the ethanol are then combusted in the refinery's modified diesel engine, which powers a 60-kilowatt generator [possibly similar to the one pictured].
About 10 percent of the electricity the refineries produce are used for the machines' power needs, but the remaining 90 percent would be available for the troops.
Like all trash to energy projects, utility hangs on reliability and maintenance cost. If you only have one and it breaks or needs an overhaul, you are in a black out. So, you'd still need diesel fuel backup for those periods.
And they better be careful not to have a few bullets left on the cafeteria trays!
Via::SF Gate, "Army to Turn Trash Into Power in Iraq" Image credit::Defense Link, Photo Archive, "U.S. Air Force airmen, assigned to the 62nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, work together pushing an 86 diesel generator in place at McChord Air Force Base, Wash., Jan. 24, 2006..." (excerpted)
This is a great innovation. These kind of solutions really have a future! Maybe electric vehicle technology would find an interested market by developing the technology for military applications. maybe Zap will come out with a Hummer-type vehicle.
The military has some different motivations for reducing demands on fossil fuel than environmentalists, but they've got the budget to make ideas like this a reality. Much of our consumer technology was originally developed by the military, so hopefully their focus on alternative energy has the same effect.
I wonder what the exhaust is like. With the mix of trash, I imagine it would be quite toxic. If the exhaust is safe, could this be used in a residential area? Perhaps by a a restaurant (big trash producers) to offset some of their poser costs, or by an apartment building...
I think this sort of unit will have an important role in managing urban waste. The current vogue of picking up compost in big diesel trucks (a la Toronto and San Francisco) clearly does not have much of a future.
This is a great technology. I wonder what kind of waste is leftover from the process? Why not install a few of these at landfills?
I remember reading about many processes that produced somewhat similar results, I wonder what this one uses?
This is a great idea, if we could convert the waste that society produces into fuel, and its only a step from propane and ethane to liquid fuels, then this could make a big difference to our reliance on food crops for biofuels. Good to see the Army (any army) using a bit of imagination.
Interesting. We might be seeing this technology at the landfills within 3 years. The only worry though is air pollution. If you can get away with it without much pollution then it's a winner. The one thing we can do is make a hella bunch of garbage! Then the new formula will be "Garbage In, Energy Out!" (Forgive me for that last pun). :)
The military has some different motivations for reducing demands on fossil fuel than environmentalists, but they've got the budget to make ideas like this a reality. Much of our consumer technology was originally developed by the military, so hopefully their focus on alternative energy has the same effect.
I know this is a grand innovation in recycling and conservationism, and I certainly hope that it makes its way from the battlefield to civilian use quickly, but as a jackass I have to say that I'm relieved that ther's finally a use for all those discarded piles of S.O.S. (chipped creamed beef).
I think the city of Morgantown WV uses some system to turn garbage into electricity.
I think we need to recycle much more that we do. Every spring we sent a large amount of leaves, grass, and tree trimmings to the land fill. This could be used by the city instead of going into the dump.