On 2006-04-21, ktbr wrote:
Eventually you will see more of this type of processing waste
into energy. But you must realize that it would take a massive
contruction effort to build enough of these plants to make even
a small dent in the total oil needs of the United States.

What would likely happen is market forces would cause a migration rather
than a big conscious effort to build these things. Additionally, the
economics of things like thermal depolymerisation are different - it's
not so much as the traditional having a huge oil well, going to a huge
refinery. The best infrastructure would probably to have the plants
on-site where the waste is already. Such as the one right next to the
Butterball factory.

But, say, $100/barrel oil will ensure that companies go prospecting for
more oil. Suddenly, oil sources that weren't economical become
economical - as do alternate fuels - when oil isn't as cheap as it is
today (and for what you can get out of oil, it's still cheap stuff at
$70 a barrel).

--
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de