Another claim of fuel from unlikely raw materials. Anyone know what
ever became of the "Anything into Oil" promise [1] of a few years ago?
Udhay
[1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/silk-list/message/8305
http://www.philoneist.com/50226711/exclusive_nascar_fuel_expert_claims_invention_of_pigoline_gas.php
EXCLUSIVE: Nascar Fuel Expert Claims Invention of "Pigoline" Gas
Filed in archive Energy by Eric Roston on October 05, 2006
A Nascar fuel specialist claims he has invented a way to make
high-end gasoline from animal waste. Dean Gokel says he can produce
110 octane "pigoline"--gasoline made from hog waste--that is
indistinguishable on a molecular level from petroleum-based
additives. If other scientists confirm his technology--which they
have yet to do--and can scale it up to industrial levels, Gokel hopes
he can address two problems at once: addiction to foreign oil and
biological pollution from commercial hog and poultry farming. Says
Frank Bell, the president of the Waste Elimination Biostill Systems
(WEBS), Gokel's fledgling company: "This guy can take a gallon of
piss, shit and water and turn it into a gallon of gasoline."
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, the saying goes.
Gokel has set out this week to prove his technology to investors and
regulators. Reluctance to spill his proprietary secrets to all comers
tempers universal excitement with healthy skepticism.
Retrieving energy stored in biological waste is a growing field. In
fact, this morning, waste engineers and urban officials from around
the country announced the creation of a coalition to promote the
practice. Their plans generally involve the combustion of biomass or
waste to free the energy stored inside. Gokel's technology works
through chemical reactivity, not combustion: Nothing has to burn. His
apparatus makes the conversion below 100 degrees Celsius and 100
pounds-per-square-inch pressure.
Gokel spent 20 years running an environmental clean-up business,
after graduating from college with degrees in both geology and
chemistry. In the 1990s, he says the Charlotte Speedway retained him
to clean up gasoline contamination found during a track expansion.
When track officials learned how easy it is to identify foreign
materials, according to Gokel, NASCAR tracks and teams hired him to
test drivers' fuel and tires for illegal, performance-enhancing
chemicals--the automotive equivalent of doping.
The wealthier Nascar drivers began hiring Gokel to consult for them,
including Nascar team-owner and Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs
and the late Ricky Hendrick. Neil Castle and Dale Earnhardt, Sr,
taught him to race, at Hickory Speedway and Tri-County, says Gokel,
who also attended Buck Baker Winston Cup School. He proudly carries
around in his wallet a 2003 Nascar driver's license.
Gokel says he was perfectly happy with that world, working for Nascar
and boating half the time, until his wife kicked him to do something
more for the world than just live his life. For many years, Gokel
tinkered on the side, trying to convert animal waste into useful
products. After deciding to become an inventor-entrepreneur in 2001,
he ploughed all of his time and savings into his private lab. In
2001, he believes he struck paydirt. "The very first time I tried the
system it worked. It was an instantaneous breakthrough. I have never
been able to improve it from that breakthrough."
On July 31, Gokel and other WEBS executives hosted about 30 state and
federal officials and other interested parties at Sarem Farms in
Gates, NC, to watch him turn a five-gallon bucket of hog manure into
gasoline. Here's how it is supposed to work: First, he prepares the
waste, turning it "into the consistency of a milkshake," and then
pumps it into the reactor. The hogs, kindly, do much of the hard
work, breaking food into the big carbon-based molecules found in
manure. Gokel's process fractures long carbon chains and ring
structures into chemicals closer to gasoline, such as C10 or better
yet, C8 (basically, octane). Those smaller molecules are distilled
off as a vapor, which is collected and eventually used as a fuel
additive. The amines--nitrogen products--left behind can then be
packed off and sold as commercial chemicals. Gokel is only running
five-gallon batches, but there is no significant waste from it. The
process takes about three hours.
Gokel has lifted the proprietary curtain for John Calcagni, director
of the EPA's waste reduction resource center in North Carolina and an
MIT-trained chemist. "He's found a way of breaking bonds with low
heat and pressure, and no [added] catalysts," Calcagni says. "Most
university guys aren't going to think of this. But what he did is
neat. I can see why no one else has done it. I was skeptical until I
saw what he was doing."
The proprietary technology remains a secret--which halts scientists
and investors so far from writing Gokel blank checks. On July 31, the
guests to Sarem Farms watched the manure go in, and the fuel come
out, but the apparatus was cloaked. "If he's doing what he says he's
doing it'll be quite impressive," says one scientist who has seen the
reactor work. "I have no reason to doubt him." That said, even if
Gokel's breathless claims are true, there are unknowns--Is the
technology scalable? There is no discernible waste in five-gallon
batches, but what about 500 gallons? People are listening to Gokel
for at least one reason, expressed by the same observer: "This may be
the next Bill Gates in his garage. You don't want to blow him off."
WEBS has big plans, but remains an elaborate garage chemistry
experiment without proven technology and investment. That doesn't
prevent them from making claims like this: "Savings can be in the
hundreds of millions per year in operational cost reductions for
petrochemical companies."
Gokel claims his technology can also cut operating costs at ethanol
plants in half by eliminating the capital and time intensive
production steps. Chemicals derived from current ethanol waste, he
says, might be sold commercially--for prices much higher than those
of gasoline. He has plans to spend all the money from licensing his
technology on community programs for local children and revitalizing
rural America -- if WEBS ever makes it.
--
((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))
