The profit motive can change the way farmer’s think of their waste streams: i.e. from a nuisance to a lucrative profit center.
The removal of animal waste can be completely automated on the farm for rapid conversion to $3 a gallon biodiesel. The advantage of process heat from cold fusion is that the reactor is safe, inexpensive, and small. Animals could be selectively bred for their effective production of waste. A 5,000 gallon tank holding biodiesel can be filled automatically on the farm by a computerized waste handling system. This fuel could be sent to local filling stations or a nearby airport or the farmer could even setup a roadside fuel station and avoid all the middle man profit taking. In general, cold fusion will work to decentralize energy production and liberate energy producers and users from the oppression and control of the multi-national monopolies. For the farmer, one of the most important outputs of the Molten Salt Oxidation Process (MSOP) is biochar. In traditional methods of biomass fast pyrolysis, this char is used to fire the bioreactor and is turned into CO2. When nuclear energy from cold fusion is used, biochar can be saved and reapplied back to the soil. This will immediately and rapidly reverse climate warming from CO2. First off, Biochar is charcoal created by pyrolysis of biomass, and differs from charcoal only in the sense that its primary use is not for fuel, but for biosequestration or atmospheric carbon capture and storage. Charcoal is a stable solid, rich in carbon content, and thus, can be used to lock carbon in the soil. Biochar is of increasing interest because of concerns about climate change caused by emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHG). Carbon dioxide capture also ties up large amounts of oxygen and requires energy for injection (as via carbon capture and storage), whereas the biochar process breaks into the carbon dioxide cycle, thus releasing oxygen as did coal formation hundreds of millions of years ago. If the production of biochar is tied to the high profits from liquid biofuel production, huge amounts of the stuff will be generated on the farm as a result of our insatiable desire for liquid fuels. Biochar can sequester carbon in the soil for hundreds to thousands of years, like coal. Modern biochar is being developed using pyrolysis to heat biomass in the absence of oxygen in kilns and MSOP is an analogous process. However, to the difference of coal and/or petroleum charcoal, when incorporated into the soil in stable organo-mineral aggregates does not freely accumulate in an oxygen-free and abiotic environment. This allows it to be slowly oxygenated and transformed in physically stable but chemically reactive humus, thereby acquiring interesting chemical properties such as cation exchange capacity and buffering of soil acidification. Both are precious in clay and /or nutrient-pore and/or nutrient depleted soils. Biochar can be used to sequester carbon on centurial or even millennial time scales. In the natural carbon cycle, animal waste or plant matter decomposes rapidly after the plant dies, which emits CO2; the overall natural cycle is carbon neutral. Instead of allowing the plant matter to decompose, pyrolysis can be used to sequester some of the carbon in a much more stable form. Biochar thus removes circulating CO2 from the atmosphere and stores it in virtually permanent soil carbon pools, making it a carbon-negative process. In places like the Rocky Mountains, where beetles have been killing off vast swathes of pine trees, the utilization of pyrolysis to char the trees instead of letting them decompose into the atmosphere would offset substantial amounts of CO2 emissions. Although some organic matter is necessary for agricultural soil to maintain its productivity, much of the agricultural waste can be turned directly into biochar, bio-oil, and syngas. Biochar is believed to have long mean residence times in the soil. While the methods by which biochar mineralizes (turns into CO2) are not completely known, evidence from soil samples in the Amazon shows large concentrations of black carbon (biochar) remaining after they were abandoned thousands of years ago. Lab experiments confirm a decrease in carbon mineralization with increasing temperature, so ultra-high temperature charring of plant matter increases the soil residence time and long term soil benefits of high temperature biochar. Terra preta soils are of pre-Columbian nature and were created by the local farmers and caboclos in Brazil's Amazonian basin between 450 BC and AD 950. It owes its name to its very high charcoal content, and is characterized by the presence of charcoal in high concentrations; organic matter such as plant residues, animal feces, fish and animal bones and other material; and of nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn). All of these elements save nitrogen will be found in the ash residuals in the MSOP process. To mitigate nitrogen depletion of the soil, cogeneration of nitrogen based fertilizer via the co-production of ammonia is possible from the gas output of the MSOP process. In conclusion, Cold fusion can get us back to the sustainable farming practices that nurtured mankind even in the earliest and most wholesome days of our civilization. Cheers: Axil On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 12:03 PM, Robert Lynn < [email protected]> wrote: > So perhaps what we need is Poo-Roombas http://www.irobot.com/uk/ on every > farm? Or train dogs to collect crap (they seem to like eating the stuff > well enough) rather than using children as is common in the 3rd world. > > It's probably cheaper and easier to dry and burn the excrement to create > energy than inefficiently producing biofuels. Many farm vehicles and > trucks could be poo-powered if they were battery hybrids and if we could > replace all farm diesel use and provide some electricity for the grid too > then that would be a huge win. > > Probably a shit idea though. > > > On 25 June 2012 06:51, Axil Axil <[email protected]> wrote: > >> To cover the losses in waste production from small operations, it may be >> appropriate to extend the analysis to more types of waste streams. >> >> First, Chicken manure. >> >> >> >> Estimation of the total yearly United States bio-diesel production >> capability from chicken manure. >> >> >> >> Chicken manure weight = 0.21 lb/day >> >> >> >> The United States chicken population is (1,970,000,000) >> >> >> >> Average chicken waste (litter) production is 0.21 lb/day. The total >> yearly litter production is as follows: >> >> >> >> 1,970,000,000 * 0.21 lb/day * 365 days * 1/2000 = 75,500,250 tons >> >> >> >> At 150 gallons of bio-diesel per dry ton of chicken litter >> >> >> >> 75,500,250 tons * 150 gallons = 11,325,037,500 gallons of bio-diesel per >> year from chicken litter. >> >> >> >> Running total U.S yearly bio-diesel from United States manure production >> is as follows: >> >> >> >> 11,325,037,500 gallons from chickens + 189,000,000,000 gallons from cow >> manure = 200,325,037,500 total gallons of bio diesel per year. >> >> >> >> --------- >> >> >> >> Estimation of the total yearly United States bio-diesel production >> capability from human waste sludge. >> >> >> >> The United States population is (310,000,000) >> >> >> >> Annual mass sludge per capita 64.4 pounds >> >> >> >> The total yearly sludge production is as follows: >> >> 310,000,000 * 64.4 pounds/year * 1/2000 = 9,982,000 tons/year >> >> >> >> Assuming a 40% moisture content, the dry weight of sludge = 9,982,000 * >> .6 = 5,989,200 tons/year >> >> >> >> At 150 gallons of bio-diesel per dry ton of sludge -> 5,989,200 tons/year >> * 150 gallons/dry ton = 898,380,000 gallons of bio-diesel per year from >> human waste sludge. >> >> >> >> Running total U.S yearly bio-diesel from United States manure/bio-waste >> production is as follows: >> >> >> >> 11,325,037,500 gallons from chicken litter + >> >> 189,000,000,000 gallons from cow manure + >> >> 898,380,000 gallons of bio-diesel per year from human waste sludge >> >> >> >> = 201,223,417,500 total potential gallons of bio diesel per year. >> >> ========================================= >> >> >> >> >> >> Estimation of the total yearly United States bio-diesel production >> capability from swine waste. >> >> >> >> The United States swine population is (60,388,700) >> >> >> >> Swine are estimated to produce daily raw manure of as much as 8.4 percent >> of body weight (urine and feces). >> >> >> >> Generally, growing-finishing pigs weighing 21 to 100 kg can be expected >> to generate 0.39 to 0.45 kg of waste per day on a dry matter basis (Brumm >> et al. 1980). >> >> >> >> >> >> .45kg (1 lbs) * 60,388,700 * 1/2000 *365 = 11020937 tons of swine >> waste/year >> >> >> >> >> >> 150 gallons of bio-diesel/ton * 11,020,937 tons of swine waste/year = >> 1,653,140,662 gallons of bio-diesel/year from swine waste >> >> >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------ >> >> >> >> Estimation of the total yearly United States bio-diesel production >> capability from municipal solid waste. >> >> >> >> >> >> The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that in 2006 >> there were 251 million tons of municipal solid waste, or 4.6 pounds >> generated per day per person in the USA >> >> >> >> 310,000,000 people * 4.6 lbs/person * 1/2000 * 365 days = 260,245,000 >> tons of municipal solid waste >> >> >> >> 150 gallons of bio-diesel/ton * 260,245,000 tons of municipal solid = >> 39,036,750,000 gallons of bio-diesel/year from municipal solid waste >> >> >> >> Running total U.S yearly bio-diesel from United States >> manure/bio-waste/solid waste production is as follows: >> >> >> >> 11,325,037,500 gallons from chicken litter + >> >> >> >> 189,000,000,000 gallons from cow manure + >> >> >> >> 898,380,000 gallons of bio-diesel per year from human waste sludge + >> >> >> >> 1,653,140,662 gallons of bio-diesel/year from swine waste + >> >> >> >> 39,036,750,000 gallons of bio-diesel/year from municipal solid waste = >> >> >> >> 241,913,308,162 gallons of bio-diesel/year(5,759,840,670 b/y --- >> 15,780,385 b/d) total potential gallons of bio diesel per year from U.S. >> waste streams. >> >> >> >> -------------------------- >> >> >> >> >> >> Because it is produced in massive concentrations, much of the bio-waste >> produces water pollution in streams and rivers or is burned for electric >> power production in meat processing plants or incinerated or landfilled. >> Also anaerobic digestion converts the waste to a methane and carbon dioxide >> rich biogas (sewage treatment) released to the atmosphere. >> >> >> >> All the minerals and nitrogen content from bio-diesel processing of the >> animal waste can be reapplied to farm land as mineral fertilizers formed >> from ash residue. >> >> >> >> >> >> ================================================================ >> >> Elimination of concentrated animal waste streams from the US biosphere >> will save about $500,000,000 to a high estimate of $ one trillion in >> medical costs and 3000 to 5000 deaths from food poisoning. >> >> >> >> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/business/16illness.html >> >> >> >> *In a pair of research reports made public on Wednesday, the **Centers >> for Disease Control and >> Prevention*<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/centers_for_disease_control_and_prevention/index.html?inline=nyt-org> >> * said that about 48 million people a year get sick from tainted food, >> down from the previous, often-cited estimate of 76 million. The number of >> deaths estimated to come from food poisoning also went down, to about 3,000 >> a year from 5,000. * >> * * >> >> *The revision means that one in six Americans gets sick each year from >> tainted food, not one in four, as the old study, conducted in 1999, >> projected.* >> >> >> >> Also see >> >> >> >> http://www.key-group.cz/en/msop.php >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 5:38 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> In reply to Axil Axil's message of Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:02:57 -0400: >>> Hi, >>> [snip] >>> >The total US yearly manure production capacity is about 2,100,000,000 >>> tons. >>> >The MSOP can accomidate the 40% moisture content of which 1,260,000,000 >>> >tons of dry content is estimated. >>> >>> ..but most of this manure is spread across grazing lands, not >>> conveniently >>> collected in feedlots. >>> >>> Regards, >>> >>> Robin van Spaandonk >>> >>> http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html >>> >>> >> >
