Team converts wet biological waste to diesel-compatible fuel

[rangerrebew]

Team converts wet biological waste to diesel-compatible fuel

by Diana Yates, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
 

In a step toward producing renewable engine fuels that are compatible with existing diesel fuel infrastructure, researchers report they can convert wet biowaste, such as swine manure and food scraps, into a fuel that can be blended with diesel and that shares diesel's combustion efficiency and emissions profile.

The researchers report the findings in the journal Nature Sustainability.

"The demonstration that fuels produced from wet waste can be used in engines is a huge step forward for the development of sustainable liquid fuels," said Brajendra K. Sharma, a research scientist with the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center at the University of Illinois' Prairie Research Institute and a co-author of the study. U. of I. agricultural and biological engineering professor Yuanhui Zhang led the research. His former graduate student Wan-Ting (Grace) Chen is the first author of the paper and a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Mechanical science and engineering professor Chia-Fon Lee and graduate student Timothy Lee led the engine tests.

https://techxplore.com/news/2018-12-team-biological-diesel-compatible-fuel.html

[Smokin Joe]

So, essentially all they have done is to replicate natural processes that lead to hydrocarbon development in a much shorter time and a lab environment. Organic materials which did not oxidize subjected to heat and pressure in a closed system, without bothering with all that rock.

I wonder what the real energy balance is for the process (from gathering materials to the process to refining) to produce a barrel of diesel grade fuel?

[Joe Wooten]

So, essentially all they have done is to replicate natural processes that lead to hydrocarbon development in a much shorter time and a lab environment. Organic materials which did not oxidize subjected to heat and pressure in a closed system, without bothering with all that rock.

I wonder what the real energy balance is for the process (from gathering materials to the process to refining) to produce a barrel of diesel grade fuel?

I would take bets it is very negative. Another process in need of a massive government subsidy.....

[Smokin Joe]

I would take bets it is very negative. Another process in need of a massive government subsidy.....

Considering that when we produce oil, we harvest the stored energy of the sun (ultimately) in the form of biogenic hydrocarbons, produced ultimately from sediments (source rock) at thermal maturity through burial, pressure, and heat flow from the planet itself, tapped from natural reservoirs in rock where that oil or gas can accumulate in quantities which make it economical to recover. Replicating the natural parts of that process in a surface environment created to mimic those processes will certainly take a large energy input, and the 'economy of scale' found in nature cannot be replicated.
Yep, looks like another expensive misapplication of technology to me, and I have seen a few of those. 

Sure seems like making diesel out of pond scum just encourages the proliferation of pond scum.