Biorefinery Turns Waste into Juice, Which Isn’t as Gross as That Sounds
2 Comments Published by Joel March 8th, 2007 in Gadgets. Share This
The future of power is only war… for your garbage! This lovely little machine is a “biorefinery” designed to take food, paper, and plastic waste and convert them into electricity. First designed for use by the military, it’s not unpossible that similar devices could be used everywhere in the future. (Imagine how much more inclined people would be to recycle if they were getting electricity directly from their efforts.)
When news of this modern day Mr. Fusion came to light last month, a few people got hung up on this line: “Researchers tested the first tactical biorefinery prototype in November and found that it produced approximately 90 percent more energy than it consumed.” They aren’t breaking on Newtonian law. Instead, they’re saying that the machine plus the waste made more energy than it took to process the waste. It’s not energy from the ether—it’s just efficient enough to make more energy than it uses.
This isn’t the only way to eke power from waste products: Vermont has a program called “Cow Power” that makes energy from manure.
Scientists develop portable generator that turns trash into electricity [Purdue.edu]
man, that is amazingly awesome. industrial ecology is an interesting science, to say the least. i am really starting to get into it, having just purchased a 1981 mercedes benz 300sd and have been researching how to make biodiesel and waste vegetable oil fuel kits. this guy has done a lot of interesting work in the way of automated biodiesel processors. these things just make sense, and you don’t have to be a hippy douche to appreciate it. good post!
Slap a flux capacitor on that baby and where we’re going we won’t need roads…