Skiing down the roof of a Waste to Energy Plant while blowing smoke rings???

I hope the title of this post caught the attention of some, and yes I do literally mean snow ski down the roof of a waste to energy plant.  Recently the a competition to design a waste to energy plant in Copenhagen, Denmark was wrapped up, and the winning design included a ski slop and a smoke stack that emits 30 meter smoke rings every time 1 ton of CO2 is emitted from the plant.  This surely does sound crazy, but it looks like a fun design.  Here is an article with several more pictures and more details on the winning design, including the layout of the ski slope (greens, blues, and a black).

Waste-to-Energy, Europe vs. USA

After researching all types of waste to energy I have noticed an interesting trend, almost all of the information on the Internet about waste to energy is somehow always related to some European country, and it seems that the US is hardly ever mentioned.  Why is that?  I find this issue to be very interesting and therefore I am going to look into why this this and see if anyone else can help me figure out why the US is so far behind in applying all this great waste to energy technology.  Here is an interesting article I found that gives some basics on the issue at hand, and gives several reasons why it might be that the US is not keeping up with all those European countries.  

First, the article compares the number of waste to energy facilities, in particular municipal waste to energy, in both Denmark and the US.  Denmark (pop. 5.5 million) currently has 29 facilities to the 87 of the US (pop. 300 million).  Although the US has more facilities by count, when considering the population of the US, we should have nearly 1600 facilities.  The article goes on to say that one of the main reasons they think this trend hasn't caught on in the US is because of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard).  But if the Europeans don't care about a waste to energy plant being in their back yard, than why do Americans.  Is this a valid argument? What do you think?

 

Burning Trash to Zapping Trash

If any of you are from a rural area you may have once burned your trash instead of paying for the garbage man to come to your house to dispose of the trash in the local landfill.  This has been a common way for many to dispose of their trash for quite some time now.  In recent history however, companies and towns have taken this same idea and upgraded that old rusty barrel to huge electricity production facilities.  There are several ways that everyday trash can be used to produce electricity.

First, you can incinerate it.  This is just a fancy way of saying "burn the heck out of it".  After sorting through the trash and making sure non-combustibles are sorted out, the trash is sent into a furnace that reaches nearly 1000 degrees C.  This ensures that all material is combusted.  The trash is then continually fed into the furnace and burned in the presence of oxygen.  The large amount of heat that is released from the furnace is then harvested and used in a boiler to produce steam.  This steam can then be distributed to area schools and hospitals for heating purposes, or used to produce electricity.

Another way of harvesting energy from everyday wastes is to gasify it.  This follows the same principle as above but the trash enters a reactor instead of a furnace.  The only difference being, that there is no oxygen in the reactor.  Again at very high temperatures, this causes the trash to be gasified.  Gasification is achieved when the chemical bonds of the trash are broken and the trash is converted into syngas.  Syngas is primarily made up of hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide.  This syngas can then be burned just as natural gas is burned to power a generator to produce electricity.  It may be hard to see how everyday trash can be turned into a natural gas like substance, but lets take a closer look.  When thinking about trash, paper and paper products account for the majority of the trash.  Paper is made from trees, that is made up of cellulose and lignin, that are made up carbon and hydrogen.  So when you break paper down to its base components you will be left with carbon and hydrogen.  When gasification occurs all the chemical bonds that hold these carbons and hydrogens together are broken.  When there is a bunch of hydrogen atoms around two hydrogen atoms will tend to bond to each other to make hydrogen gas.  The carbon atoms will also likely bond to any oxygen atoms released from gasification and form carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide.  This is what makes up syngas.  The picture below is a gasification reactor.

A third way of extracting energy from trash is to zap it.  This follows the same idea as traditional gasification except that an electrical arc is used to break the chemical bonds of the trash.  An inert gas (non reacting gas) is also used in the reactor.  When the electrical arc comes into contact with the inert gas, very high temperatures can be reached, on the order of 3000 to 4000 degrees C.  This very high temperature is then responsible for breaking the many chemical bonds of the trash down into its elemental components.  Syngas that is produced can then be burned to produce electricity for the local community.  The picture below shows a plasma gasification reactor and some of the supporting equipment.

Brylie's New Trick

This post has nothing to do with waste to energy, but it does have to do with me teaching my dog how to get me a beer out of the fridge!  Here is the video I got of her yesterday, after working hard all day Monday to get the skill mastered (not really mastered yet, but close).  Hope you enjoy!

Self Evaluation

Because this blog is also an assignment for my Communicating Science class, I now have to post my first of three self evaluations.  

Overall, I feel that my blog has come together very nicely.  It is easy to read and the design goes well with my topic.  I have 9 posts (more than assigned), all of which have been focused on my topic of waste to energy, except for this one and the video of Brylie's trick.  Topics I have discussed include anaerobic digestion, including feed stocks of both dog poop and cow manure, as well as wastewater energy, and local waste to energy news.  I feel that all of my posts have been written in a way that almost anyone can understand, and relate to.  If I do use certain word that I feel are to advanced, I define them in an easier way to understand.  I have used links, pictures, and videos (one of my own) to supplement my posts.  Also, I feel that I have gotten plenty of traffic on my blog from other students.  I have gotten around 15 comments, including some of my own responses.  I have also been working hard on commenting on other blogs that I am interested in, by asking questions, or posting articles that I have found that goes along with the posts ( I have commented approximately 10 times).

As for some goals I have to improve my blog, I hope to get interaction from those outside of our class in the near future.  I also want to discuss other types of waste to energy, such as gasification, pyrolysis, and landfill gas technologies.  There is a ton of information out there and I plan to just scratch the surface.  Overall, I feel that my blog could be considered a high B to low A, as defined by the rubric on commforge.blogspot.com

Oil/Gas Rich Weld Co. Opens up to Other Forms of Energy

After reading and writing about all these waste to energy technologies it is nice to come by some local news that discusses the possibility of those technologies being implemented.  I recently came across a newspaper article from the Greeley Tribune that discussed the energy economy and future for Weld county.  Weld county is mostly known for its vast amounts of oil and gas that is produced from the Niobrara formation.  In fact, the article states that 37 percent of all the oil and gas wells in Colorado are located in Weld County.  Fortunately, Weld county is also a agricultural hot spot, just like most of Northeast Colorado.  And what comes with many agricultural establishments, lots of agricultural wastes.  So what better way to harvest more energy in this already energy rich county than by building a anaerobic digestion facility.

Heartland Renewable Energy, based out of Longmont, CO has plans to build a anaerobic digestion facility near the town of Gilcrest, CO.  They plan to process the biogas produced from manure in the area, into pipeline ready gas.  The plant will include 24 anaerobic digesters and will be built near the Colorado Interstate Gas Pipeline allowing for easy injection into the pipeline.  It is estimated that this plant will be able to power 22,000 homes in the surrounding areas.

Also, JBS Five Rivers and Harsh International Inc. of Eaton, CO plan to implement a manure gasifier that will burn the feedlot wastes to produce a very hot gas stream used to make steam energy.  The gasifier will be installed at Kuner Feedlot in Kersey, CO and can be expected to reduce the feedlots natural gas consumption by 80 percent.

Great things are happening in waste to energy here in Colorado, and I plan to keep everyone posted on the progress of these projects as well as look for already implemented technologies in the area and new ones that come about.

Toilet Energy

Check out this article I found in Popular Science about a student who developed a turbine that captures the energy from falling wastewater and turns it into electricty.  Now this most likely wouldn't be used for toilet wastewater due to how dirty it is, but it could be used for oter wastewater streams such as from the sink and showers in the building.  This may not be the greatest idea ever but I thought it was intesting.

Blog Self Interview

 

-What is the purpose of this blog?

To inform my audience about different technologies within the waste to energy field.  Create a way for those who want to participate in creating their own energy from waste to get started with ideas and do-it-yourself posts.  There is definitely a market out there for waste to energy, maybe we can become experts together and make some money by applying this knowledge and our wonderful engineering skills we have learned here at CSM.

-Who is the imagined audience(s) of this blog?

Those who are interested in alternative fuels, and those who want to become more self-sustained.

-Have my posts matched up with my purpose/audience?  What/who might I be overlooking in defining my purpose/audience this way?

I feel that my posts have introduced the topic of waste to energy well.  With time I should be able to expand to other types of waste to energy technologies.  With posts on a variety of different topics within the field, some of my audience may be more interested in certain topics and I can focus on those topics.

-What can I do to encourage more reader participation with my blog?

So far I have focused on anaerobic digestion technologies.  To get more audience participation I will need to introduce more technologies in the waste to energy field.

-How can I expand my audience in this class?  Outside of this class?

To expand my in class audience I need to comment on more people's blogs.  Outside of class...I need to find others who are interested in the same types of technologies and let them know about my blog.  For example, comment on YouTube videos to try to strike a conversation with others.

-How would I characterize the tone of my blog?

Very informal and entertaining, yet informative and interesting.

-What do I hope to get out of writing this blog?

To be exposed to other technologies out there in the waste to energy field, and to expand some of the idea here (such as the do-it-yourself posts) into larger scale operations.

-What would I like others to get out of it?

Interesting information of ways to get energy from wastes.

-What are the strengths of my blog/my blogging?

I feel that I can get the basics across without drowning my audience in the wealth of information out there.

-What are the weaknesses?

Posting more routinely and engaging with others in the class.

-Have I used a deficit model in my writing, or something else?  How would I know?

I think I may have used the deficit model in introducing the basics of anaerobic digestion.  Knowing that there are a bunch of specific details needed to fully understand the chemical and biochemical processes involved with waste to energy technologies.

-How have I characterized (implicitly or explicitly) science, engineering, and/or technology in my blog?

I have explicitly introduced science technologies in the waste to energy field.  I hope to point out engineering and economic challenges that may arise with some of these technologies as well.

-How have I characterized myself?

I think that I have characterized myself as someone who is looking for waste to energy technologies that are both interesting but mostly practical.  I have tried to keep it entertaining and humorous so that it isn't as boring as it could be.

Upstream Public Engagment

As a student at the Colorado School of Mines, each students course load is heavily sided towards math, science, and engineering courses.  However, to graduate with any undergraduate degree here at CSM, students have to take at least one 400-Level LAIS (Liberal Arts and International Studies) course.  In my case, I chose to take Communicating Science, which the main assignment during the semester is designing and maintaining a science blog, hence the existence of this blog.  The main focus of this course is to learn how to more effectively communicate the science and engineering processes and innovations we may come across in our careers, to the media and public.  One such model discussed in Investigating Science Communication the Information Age is "upstream public engagement."  This model focuses on getting the public involved with science and engineering innovations from the get go.  The sooner the public gets involved the better.  If the public gets involved from the beginning, they can shed light on their doubts/concerns with the direction of certain innovations.  They can also introduce an important point of view, as most often the public is the end user of all science and engineering innovations.

I feel that one of the best ways to get the public involved is by allowing them to join in on the science and engineering process by some smaller scale do-it-yourself workshops or projects.  One great source of learning how to do just about anything is YouTube.  So why not develop a video that would break down the process and develop step by step way of giving the public the means of building their own household process.  In the case of waste to energy, and more importantly anaerobic digestion of wastes to methane, a simple household digester can be constructed out of materials from any local hardware store.  The following video is first pass attempt of developing a way to build a household anaerobic digester.

Advances in Cow Pie Energy

From my previous post, Dog Poop Park Lights, I introduced an interesting and creative way to use all that dog poop that fills the backyard and park trashcans. It may come as a surprise to some, but this is not the first idea or process that has used animal feces to obtain energy.

Dating back to the early 1700s, when warmth and light accounted for the majority of energy consumption in the American West, Native Americans would build pottery kilns using dried buffalo and cow pies. They would use the dung and stack it on all side of the pottery to build high temperature fires used to cure the pottery. You may ask why not use wood, or some other more conventional combustible material? Well, when out on the plains of the western United States, buffalo were much more abundant than trees, and plus the Native Americans were known for their ability to not let any part of the animal go to waste. Actually, the dried dung has a heating value that is very close to wood’s heating value. The heating value of different materials is the amount of heat that is produced from the combustion (burning) of a unit amount of that material. But the main reason buffalo or cow pies were used to cure pottery is due to the fact that they contain no sap, and primarily made up of undigested grass. When you burn wood, sap becomes very hot and stains the pottery. This is the same thing that happens when cheese or other foods bake onto the pan after being in the oven for a long time. The picture below shows a Native American woman with the pottery she baked using buffalo and cow pies (filling the wash tubs). 

Not only did the Native Americans make use of cow pies, but the early American settlers also used cow pies to heat their homes. Cow pies were allowed to dry out in the pasture and then collected. One good thing about burning cow pies was that you didn’t have to chop them up into manageable pieces, a necessary step in burning wood. The women and children of the house would usually be in charge of collecting this free fuel. A surplus of cow pies could be collected over the summer, to provide a nice and warm home during the winter months. The picture below shows one early settler’s wheelbarrow full of sun dried cow pies, ready to be used to heat their home.

So why haven’t many people heard of these very practical ways of using cow manure? Mostly because the discovery and use of other fossil fuels such as oil and coal stole the scene away from cow pies. So just recently, since issues such as global warming and rising fuel prices have occurred, alternative energy has made a comeback.

So how has waste to energy, in particular, cow pies or manure to energy grown to be able to compete with the energy giants? It all starts with a free feedstock that is produced 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, cow manure. The most obvious places that an abundance of cow manure is produced are at feedlots and dairies. The same process that was used to turn dog poop into methane and then burned to create light can be applied in a much larger scale at these locations. Manure is cleaned out of the corrals on a regular basis and stock piled in one area where the waste to energy process can proceed. There are several types of anaerobic digesters that can be used. Underground covered lagoons and aboveground vessels can both be used to hold the manure and water mixture (approximately 2 parts water and 1 part manure). By keeping the mixture agitated and warm (around 95 F) the manure under goes several reactions that eventually generates biogas (50 % methane/ 50% CO2). 

However, before the methane that is produced can be used it must be separated from the carbon dioxide that is also produced. Further processing can be done to remove other impurities such as hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous gas. Finally the methane is dried and all the water is removed from the vapor phase. This almost pure methane stream can then be used in several ways. The natural gas can be compressed and injected into a natural gas pipeline, used as a fuel to run an electrical generator, or used in household furnaces and ranges. Many times local power companies will even set up an agreement with feedlots and dairies to put the extra electricity generated back into the grid. 

Don’t forget that there is left over sludge that needs to be disposed of or used after the process is complete. Fortunately, cow manure has long been used as a fertilizer. The left over sludge still has all the essential components and compounds to be spread over fields to fertilize the next growing seasons crops. 

There are however some down sides to using this type of waste to energy process. First, large amounts of water are needed to prepare the feedstock. In places where water is not as easily obtained this process could no longer be economical. Also, the bacteria that digest the manure are very sensitive. These bacteria must be held at an almost constant high temperature and oxygen must be kept out of the system. Below is a photo of modern biogas plant used to turn cow manure into clean burning and efficient energy.