[Terrapreta] (tire pyrolysis)

[lou gold]

Hey Sean,

I keep hearing you say "STOP the continued consumption of fossil carbon
resources." How? How in terms of practical politics? How will you stop
Peabody Coal? How will you stop China? I really hope and pray that you have
an answer because I'd love to see it happen.

hugs,   lou

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 2:17 PM, Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com> wrote:

>  Hi James,
>
> Wow! That NIMBY thing just bites.  It squelches many unconventional and
> environmentally beneficial alternatives.  There is no wind farm off the
> coast on the eastern seaboard because of NIMBY (and its not even in their
> back yards).  There is a Senator from a state with little or no wind
> resource, who claims that the unsightly nature of wind turbines offends the
> aesthetic sensibilities and the livelihoods of too many people to be
> acceptable in any other state, even outside his district (where there will
> never be wind farms).  Tidal power has been stymied by people who want their
> ocean views undisturbed.
>
> I think NIMBY used to crush technological innovation with energy is
> self-serving, too conservative, and immoral in this day and age.
>
> Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of carbonaceous matter in an oxygen
> limited environment.  It has greatly reduced emissions versus complete
> combustion (burning), a great array of potentially useful products, and it
> is by definition much cleaner than burning (lower overall emissions).  Many
> of the products from pyrolysis can be used as direct replacements for what
> are now petrochemical products.  Waste management using pyrolysis can be
> much cleaner from an emissions standpoint than refining of petroleum into
> petro-chemcial products and fuels now is.
>
> Charcoal, which has a similar energy density to mineral coal, is made via
> pyrolysis of biomass (mostly from biomass with high content of lignin,
> cellulose, or hemi-cellulose), and if burned for its energy content would
> not emit the same high levels of mercury, cadmium, radioactive isotopes, or
> carcinogens and pyto-toxins as does the burning of fossil mineral coal.
> Burning charcoal made using pyrolysis would be way better than continuing to
> burn fossil coal, because the CO2 emissions from burning charcoal are
> "carbon neutral", whereas those from burning fossil coal will only continue
> to increase the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere (very "carbon positive").
>
> Making charcoal from wastes and biomass, then amending charcoal into soil,
> puts carbon directly out of the atmosphere and into the ground in near
> permanent, sequestered storage.  Pyrolysis of wastes and biomass coupled
> with "Terra Preta"-like formation of charcoal enhanced soils would be a very
> highly "CARBON NEGATIVE" practice.
>
> The world needs "CARBON NEGATIVE" practices now, more than ever.
>
> We MUST be ever vigilant, though, that pyrolysis of biomass into charcoal,
> to make "CARBON NEGATIVE" TP soils can never be used to justify (through
> emissions offsets) the continued use of fossil carbon fuels!  The world also
> desperately needs to STOP the continued consumption of fossil carbon
> resources and the consequent emissions of billions of tons of "CARBON
> POSITIVE" fossil sourced CO2.
>
> Regards,
>
> SKB
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* James Thomas <jthomas at yakama.com>
> *To:* terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> *Sent:* Monday, May 12, 2008 11:17 AM
> *Subject:* [Terrapreta] (tire pyrolysis)
>
> Re: the tire pyrolysis question:  A company headed by a New Zealand
> Environmental Scientist  is attempting to do this very thing locally
> here in Washington State; with  "Carbon Black" as a market product
> syngas used to fuel the process once it gets going good and hot
> (parasitic consumption) and the remainder used to generate electricity
> for the grid and the biooil for market. They were planning on sinking
> about $25 million into the process. Many people would be employed; air
> pollution control would be a key point; all kinds of good things
> environmentally were proposed. But in reality the NIMBY (Not in my
> backyard) mental paradigm squelched the proposal, at least temporarily.
>
> With regard to the steel in the steel belts it was proposed that  the
> tires would come in in bales, then chipped , then subjected  to
> pyrolysis and the steel chips collected after pyrolysis . I am not sure
> how the char and steel would be separated, but it appears not to be too
> much of an obstacle, I suspect that the char would simply crumble away
> from the metal chips. Bottom line is this is already being thought of as
> a way to reuse all of the waste tires in Washington State and
> entrepreneurial spirit is attempting to make it happen. But the NIMBY
> effect is limiting the potential.
>
> It has been suggested to put in this type of facility well away from
> populated areas, but my question is " if this is proposed, where would
> the employees live? Do you expect employees to live in an isolated
> community way out in the desert, just so they can have a job with no
> other life or other "benefits of civilization"? Sounds like the chorus
> in the old "Tennessee" Ernie Ford song about sixteen tons of coal per
> day being the miner's output:   "I owe my soul to the company store". Or
> do you expect them to commute or take a shuttle daily from a population
> center? Then where is the proposed environmental benefit of less overall
> fuel consumption?  Pyrolysis obviously needs a better public relations
> effort to be accepted by the public. People just don't have an
> understanding that pyrolysis of tires or medical waste or gasification
> or any of the other similar processes is not the same as "Burning Tires"
> . The burning tire image reinforced on the mental video screens by
> images of Palestinian youths burning tires in protest of political
> actions is permanently  embedded in the mental paradigm of most modern
> urbanites, in my opinion. "Pyrolysis" is just a big  fancy word for more
> pollution  in this mental paradigm.
>
>
>
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