Chicken fat could fuel jet planes

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20091214/NEWS01/712149937

Published Monday December 14, 2009

DES MOINES (AP) — A central Iowa plant could soon begin producing jet fuel from poultry fat.

Bolingbrook, Ill.-based Elevance Renewable Sciences plans to build a $15 million plant in Newton, adding onto an existing biodiesel operation.

The experimental operation plans to use plant oils and poultry fat as building blocks to replace the petroleum-based chemicals used to make myriad products, including jet fuel, lubricants, adhesives and even cosmetics and candles.

“It allows us to make a very interesting slate of products,” said K’Lynne Johnson, Elevance’s chief executive officer. “We are taking a waste stream of products ... and using it in a higher value manner.”

The project, funded in part by $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, could get the final go-ahead by late January, Johnson said.

Construction of the plant would create up to 50 jobs, and seven or so permanent workers would be needed to run the biorefinery.

FULL story at link.

[JonQ]

1. Why aren't we putting more money in to this?

Turning essentially a waste product in to fuel, in a way that might turn a profit once started.

[Laelth]

6. Waste products?

afaik, neither chicken fat nor vegetable oils are waste products.

I'd rather these resources be used to feed the people than fly the jets of the rich.

Bio-fuels, for the most part, are a very bad idea.

:dem:

-Laelth

[JonQ]

12. Chicken fat

trimmed from the animal (and others) is a waste product.

People don't keep the fat and eat it. What isn't cut off in processing is likely removed by the consumer. It is a waste product.

[Laelth]

15. Hmm ...

You might enjoy The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, very useful for all liberals, really. Food processors use every part of the chicken but the cluck, I suspect.

dem:

-Laelth

[bhikkhu]

9. If it's simple enough and actually feasible, then -

you don't have to put money into it, it will turn a profit and you can take money out.

That's the good thing about a more or less "free market": if something works, it makes money, spreading and multiplying without the need for subsidies and tax breaks and so forth.

[JonQ]

13. True

although it may help kickstart the process to make some money available, and put it in to research which is then freely released to the public on the subject.

[begin_within]

2. At Disneyland, they take the leftover cooking oil

from all the restaurants in the park, send it somewhere to have it processed into biodiesel, then use that to power the train that encircles the park.

[bhikkhu]

3. This sounds like a re-run of last year's turkey-fat story

...which amounted to nothing. Not that this will or should amount to nothing, or is even in any way a bad idea.

[silverweb]

5. Only because it didn't make money.

Investors wanted it to turn a profit right away, which is stupid, stupid, stupid.

A May 2003 article in Discover magazine stated, "Appel has lined up federal grant money to help build demonstration plants to process chicken offal and manure in Alabama and crop residuals and grease in Nevada. Also in the works are plants to process turkey waste and manure in Colorado and pork and cheese waste in Italy. He says the first generation of depolymerization centers will be up and running in 2005. By then it should be clear whether the technology is as miraculous as its backers claim."<23>

However, as of August 2008, the only operational plant listed at the company's website is the initial one in Carthage, Missouri.<24>

Changing World Technology applied for an IPO on 12 Aug 2008, hoping to raise $100 million. <25>

The unusual Dutch Auction type IPO failed possibly because CWT has lost nearly $20 million with very little revenue.<26> <27>

CWT, the parent company of Renewable Energy Solutions, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. No details on plans for the Carthage plant have been released.<28>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization#Status_as_of_February_2009

I'll betcha that government-funded pilot programs given a reasonable time to develop without having to worry about f'ng Wall Street could do wonders with perfecting the process.

[MineralMan]

4. I doubt there is enough chicken fat to make this feasible.

Let's render dead people before cremating them. Now that would be an energy source. :sarcasm:

[OKIsItJustMe]

11. Re: Let's render dead people before cremating them. Now that would be an energy source.

I don’t think that would work well.

I believe body fat provides a great deal of the heat in a cremation. So, you’d be “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” i.e. using less fossil fuel to fly bodies around, but using more fossil fuel to burn bodies.

[JonQ]

14. In sweden

they use heat from crematoriums to help heat their cities. Kind of unsettling to think about, but not a bad idea.

http://xenophilius.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/crematorium-to-use-burning-bodies-to-generate-electricity/

[TxRider]

18. I doubt there is enough dead people either.

Just U.S. airlines alone (including international flights) consume over a billion gallons of oil a -month-.

[tinrobot]

7. Not just jet fuel, but cosmetics, candles, and many other things.

They used animal fat for cosmetics and candles in ancient Rome... so is this really new?

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. Kerosene distilled from oil replaced whale oil for use in lamps

Jet fuel is essentially kerosene. This appears to be coming full circle…

[tinrobot]

10. Except there are fewer whales these days.

[plcdude]

16. I believe algae

will become a major producer of jet fuel. http://blog.valcent.net/?cat=46
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5196HB20090210

[Terry in Austin]

17. Confirmed: satire is dead

Let's see -- yeah: chicken fat could fuel jet planes, and... and... aw rats, I got nothing!

:evilgrin: