NationStates Jolt Archive


If someone invented a way to produce power from garbage...

Kejott
29-08-2005, 16:32
How long do you think it would take for someone to hire an assassin to kill them, or an industrial spy to steal the idea?
Colodia
29-08-2005, 16:35
He's already dead. He, er, happened to be the man in Reno I shot just to watch him die.
Kanabia
29-08-2005, 16:36
Well, they already have...

You can burn anything and use the heat to drive a turbine. Bullshit is actually a viable source of electricity, would you believe.
Kejott
29-08-2005, 16:38
Well, they already have...

You can burn anything and use the heat to drive a turbine. Bullshit is actually a viable source of electricity, would you believe.

While that is true, I'm talking about a practical method that's way more effecient than coal, oil, or gas.
Lunatic Goofballs
29-08-2005, 16:38
How long do you think it would take for someone to hire an assassin to kill them, or an industrial spy to steal the idea?

Someone has. And he is still alive.

It's called Thermal Depolymerization and the oil industry is supporting it because there are some rather nasty residues of oil consumption that Thermal Depolymerization could transform into useable profit-rendering oil. :D
Sinuhue
29-08-2005, 16:45
Someone has. And he is still alive.

It's called Thermal Depolymerization and the oil industry is supporting it because there are some rather nasty residues of oil consumption that Thermal Depolymerization could transform into useable profit-rendering oil. :D
Is that the official name for biomass energy (http://www.nrel.gov/clean_energy/bioenergy.html)? Rotting garbage produces methane, with can be siphoned off and burned. I think it hasn't become more widely used only because of our love affair with petroleum. Of course, as that resource becomes more scarce, we'll have no choice but to dally with other suitors...
Lunatic Goofballs
29-08-2005, 16:49
Is that the official name for biomass energy (http://www.nrel.gov/clean_energy/bioenergy.html)? Rotting garbage produces methane, with can be siphoned off and burned. I think it hasn't become more widely used only because of our love affair with petroleum. Of course, as that resource becomes more scarce, we'll have no choice but to dally with other suitors...

No. It's different. Here's a Wikipedia entry on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization
Kanabia
29-08-2005, 16:52
While that is true, I'm talking about a practical method that's way more effecient than coal, oil, or gas.

Not likely, unless said garbage contains plutonium or uranium isotopes...and then i'd say that the garbage system needs looking at first, before examining other sources of energy besides fossil fuels. :p
Kejott
29-08-2005, 16:53
Not likely, unless said garbage contains plutonium or uranium isotopes. :p

Exactly why the inventor would risk being killed or having the idea stolen ;)
Phylum Chordata
29-08-2005, 17:06
If I invented a cheap clean source of power I would patent it and then post the details on the internet, which would achieve the following:

1. I would save the world. Yay!

2. No one would benefit from killing me.

3. Poor people could copy it for free.

4. Rich bastards who don't want to pay me my modest royalties which would mostly be earmarked for development aid would have to deal with attack lawyers with the full backing of rule of law and a public relations nightmare.
Dishonorable Scum
29-08-2005, 17:18
My local landfill generates all of its own power from the methane that comes out of the rotting garbage, and still burns a lot of excess methane that it can't use. On a hot day, the flame from the burning methane can get pretty impressive.

:p
Sinuhue
29-08-2005, 17:20
No. It's different. Here's a Wikipedia entry on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization
In any case, I think the point is: there are already a number of methods in use to produce power from garbage. And so far...few assassinations. PR works much more effectively "LOVE PETROLEUM! LOVE ONLY PETROLEUM!" Martyrs only make alternative energies more appealing...
Jocabia
29-08-2005, 17:30
Well, they already have...

You can burn anything and use the heat to drive a turbine. Bullshit is actually a viable source of electricity, would you believe.

Isn't that what the NS forums run on?
OHidunno
29-08-2005, 17:49
Isn't that what the NS forums run on?

Witty. *poke*
Randomlittleisland
29-08-2005, 17:55
Isn't that what the NS forums run on?

Nope, anyone who violates a forum ban three times is kidnapped and taken to the secret underground Mod HQ where they spend the rest of their short lives running around in giant hamster wheels to generate the energy to power NS. You have been warned...
German Nightmare
29-08-2005, 21:23
You know, I keep wondering what they do in those waste incineration plants?
Utracia
29-08-2005, 21:26
How long do you think it would take for someone to hire an assassin to kill them, or an industrial spy to steal the idea?

Have you seen the movie "Chain Reaction"?
Bobsvile
29-08-2005, 21:58
an hour but they found out how to make gas from garbage!!
Ekland
29-08-2005, 21:58
How long do you think it would take for someone to hire an assassin to kill them, or an industrial spy to steal the idea?

Like was said... Thermal Depolymerization. You can take garbage, bio waste, food processing scraps, and just about everything carbon based can be taken and put through a process that simulates the creation of oil (extreme heat and pressure.) It uses a lot less energy then it creates so it is very effective. I believe that one city somewhere in the Midwest runs the process on Turkey scraps from a food plant right next door.

The inventor is alive. :rolleyes:
Utracia
29-08-2005, 22:01
an hour but they found out how to make gas from garbage!!

Who would want to smell burning garbage anyway? The fumes would probably be just as toxic at least to the nostrils. :D
Bobsvile
30-08-2005, 01:05
Who would want to smell burning garbage anyway? The fumes would probably be just as toxic at least to the nostrils. :D


idk actually youre possibly right. ive never smelt it before so im not going ta argue... all i know is they can make it from garbag
Dragons Bay
30-08-2005, 03:09
The Japanese have invented a great way of incinerating garbage and producing electricity AND avoiding all the baddies that come along with it. We've just been thinking about importing the plants to Hong Kong.
OHidunno
30-08-2005, 03:27
The Japanese have invented a great way of incinerating garbage and producing electricity AND avoiding all the baddies that come along with it. We've just been thinking about importing the plants to Hong Kong.

Score! Oh yeah, we rock.
Dragons Bay
30-08-2005, 03:30
Score! Oh yeah, we rock.
Oh yes. All we have to do is to wait for that very efficient government of ours finish with their expensive and less-than-useful studies, argue about the quality of the studies with the LegCo people, and then bend to public pressure and redo the studies.... Wait... I've already forgotten about the plants themselves...

Anyway, give the government a decade or so. I'm sure they'll be able to import the parts to the plants by then.
OHidunno
30-08-2005, 03:31
Oh yes. All we have to do is to wait for that very efficient government of ours finish with their expensive and less-than-useful studies, argue about the quality of the studies with the LegCo people, and then bend to public pressure and redo the studies.... Wait... I've already forgotten about the plants themselves...

Anyway, give the government a decade or so. I'm sure they'll be able to import the parts to the plants by then.

Ugh. I'm going to be out of here by then.

Damn that fish pond.
The Land of the Enemy
30-08-2005, 03:36
Enter Mr. Fusion....
The Land of the Enemy
30-08-2005, 03:38
Geez...

How many people on NS are old enough to remember Back to the Future?
It wasn't that long ago, but damn if the intarwebs make me feel old.





Edit: Note, yes I spelled it "intarwebs" on purpose.
CthulhuFhtagn
30-08-2005, 03:53
How long do you think it would take for someone to hire an assassin to kill them, or an industrial spy to steal the idea?
The record is 7 minutes and 13.84 seconds. The average is about 31 minutes. This, of course, isn't counting the guy who dropped dead of an aneurysm 29 seconds after inventing a method.
The Land of the Enemy
30-08-2005, 04:05
Well, from what I know, there are hundreds of possibilities for alternative fuel sources that have been around for many years. I know thet there were fully electric cars(not hybrids) in as early as 1918. Jay Leno has one that he has maintained and from what I last read it was still working. The technology is here, but the oil companies who hold the virtual oligopoly on fuel dont want people to rely on anything but their product, otherwise they couldn't continue to rip you off the way they love to do.