process
Takes Guts, Tires, Plastic…
“There’s a big difference between a pilot plant and a commercial demonstration facility,” says Brian Appel, chairman and CEO of New York-based Changing World Technologies Inc. (CWT). CWT has developed one of the few waste-to-energy technologies to reach the commercial level, but commercialization is just one of many factors that distinguish this company. The company was named to Scientific American’s 50 in 2003 in the energy category for its work to devise a method of turning solid waste into oil.
CWT’s process sets the company apart from the rest of the pack. Many waste-to-energy technologies successfully produce electricity and methane by using a form of combustion. CWT’s thermal conversion process (TCP), patented in 1993, is unique because it successfully recaptures the hydrocarbons and converts it into a renewable fuel without producing emissions. In the process, organic waste material is converted into renewable diesel, solids and specialty chemicals. The renewable
diesel is different from biodiesel because it doesn’t contain alcohol. The process applies indirect heat and high pressure to emulate the Earth’s geothermal process of converting organic matter into fuel. Thus, instead of changing the chemical composition through incineration, it simplifies the existing complex polymers into their smallest units, which can then be converted into new fuels. Here’s how the TCP works. The feedstock is first prepared with water and ground into slurry. The slurry is preheated
6|2007 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 31