Making biofuel from waste plastic.

[Captain Kilowatt]

The first time I heard about it was when I heard the news today. The sister company that I work for,and which is literally accross the street from where I work,is planning a $48 million project to convert 4000 tons of plastic garbage per year as a start, into biofuel.Both companies share certain functions such as boilers,administration,power generation etc.Minas Basin plans to take a giant leap into biofuel production and help clean up the environment while doing so. Sounds like a better deal than making it from corn etc.I hope it works out well.After doing some research I found that this is not all that common but thet are doing it in Australia.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Front/9006118.html

 

[C2]

I wonder if there is enough HEU for everyone to have their own little lifetime power source?

 

[mackmobile43]

As is the company I work for, only they will be using animal fats.

30 million gallons anually is something to squeel about
http://www.seaboardpork.com/HighPlainsBioenergyConstruction.03.htm

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

As is the company I work for, only they will be using animal fats.

30 million gallons anually is something to squeel about
http://www.seaboardpork.com/HighPlainsBioenergyConstruction.03.htm

That's all I have heard biofuel being made from is from waste fat and oils.I have never heard about it being made from plastic. I guess in my original post I mentioned about it being better than that made from corn etc. that was a brain phart. Corn makes ETHENOL not biodiesel but I suppose it could still be called a biofuel.

 

[mackmobile43]

That's all I have heard biofuel being made from is from waste fat and oils.I have never heard about it being made from plastic. I guess in my original post I mentioned about it being better than that made from corn etc. that was a brain phart. Corn makes ETHENOL not biodiesel but I suppose it could still be called a bio-fuel.

Well you could make bio-diesel from the germ of the corn kernel but that would require making vegetable oil first and that's defeating the purpose.

Not taking anything away from your original post but I was just adding that most of this animal waste would be just cook into a slurry and fed back to most of the types of animal produced as another form of protein and it makes the animal feeds more palitable to the animal being fed but I digress.

This waste is of more value as bio-diesel as fuel rather than for its feed value and we run several hundred trucks so it would fuel every vehicle we operate and several millions of gallons over that.

I wonder what oils they will extract from the plastics for fuel, cotton seed perhaps?

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I have to wonder if it is something like this.


http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/04/making_biofuel_.html

 

[mackmobile43]

I have to wonder if it is something like this.


http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/04/making_biofuel_.html

not sure

 

[Hc714]

So who races to claim the giant floating island of mostly plastics in the Pacific?

 

[Geekster]

Interesting!

The company I work for has no enviromental concerns what-so-ever, they heavily utilize steel, copper, and gas like it is water. :thumbdown:

And rest assured during every corporate meeting they quetch about the cost of all three and how it impacts their profits. :glare:

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

The company I work for and the sister company that wants to build the biofuel plant are very environmentally concious.In fact one may say that being so is the reason they are in business.Actually the sister company recycles almost 50,000 tons of waste paper and cardboard every year and turns out new liner board.Liner board is the outer layers of corrugated cardboard and is also the stuff paper tubes are made of.The company I work directly for recycles tons and tons (I could not even guess how many thousands) of newsprint each year and produces countless millions of egg cartons,fast food cup holders,french fry trays,etc in addition to the Royal Chinet brand of paper plates that is made from a refined type of recycled Kraft paper. All the efflouent that is discarded from all the machines as wel as all the mill drains is held in tanks and processed before being released into the environment. I kind of feels good working for a company that cares a little bit.

 

[Cheech]

Seen something on TV about china being swamped with waste plastic. Lots of it gets burried everyday but it would certainly be alot better if turned into fuel!

 

[Geekster]

The company I work for and the sister company that wants to build the biofuel plant are very environmentally concious.In fact one may say that being so is the reason they are in business.Actually the sister company recycles almost 50,000 tons of waste paper and cardboard every year and turns out new liner board.Liner board is the outer layers of corrugated cardboard and is also the stuff paper tubes are made of.The company I work directly for recycles tons and tons (I could not even guess how many thousands) of newsprint each year and produces countless millions of egg cartons,fast food cup holders,french fry trays,etc in addition to the Royal Chinet brand of paper plates that is made from a refined type of recycled Kraft paper. All the efflouent that is discarded from all the machines as wel as all the mill drains is held in tanks and processed before being released into the environment. I kind of feels good working for a company that cares a little bit.

Good to hear!

Back to my company, they began a recycling program last year which includes copper, steel, and cardboard. Its a small step towards carbon offsets. On a side note, last year they began to remove and recycle old electrical wiring and conduit from the shop area (due to offshore outsourcing plant workers last year).

At one time the production facility was using 1,000,000 gallons of water a week (some suggested it was much higher at one time) for their die cast operations. Electric bill around $17,000 a month.

Weird as it sounds, a different division of the same company is much more green, in fact Ed Begley Jr. signed a licensing deal on of their products on his program (that is as much as I can reveal at this juncture). :drool:

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Good to hear!


At one time the production facility was using 1,000,000 gallons of water a week (some suggested it was much higher at one time) for their die cast operations. Electric bill around $17,000 a month.

The company I work for has a dam on the small river by home to supply water for operations.They also have another river dammed with a hydroelectric power station that supplies both mills with power. Besides that power we still pay the utility $5,000,000 per year which works out to almost $14,000 PER DAY.One pump motor I saw was 440 volts at 140 amps,enough juice to run a couple homes by itself.The paper mill business is an energy pig but at least we try and offset what we use by generating some of it from a clean source,hydroelectric.

 

[Geekster]

Interesting!

Yeah we run/test up to 700HP motors and current draws near 2000Amps 460V and 600V respectively (IHP). We also have a 1-Megawatt Generator for 50Hz testing which could be enough to power several European shavers.

Anyone one else here work for a "Green" conscious company?