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CleanTech Biofuels to Turn Dirty Diapers Into Ethanol

gas2.org — CleanTech Biofuels is serious about turning garbage into fuel and sincerely hopes you ’ll ignore the fact that your car’s fuel tank could be carrying what’s left of little Timmy’s soiled nappies.The company is investigating suitable sites for commercial garbage-to-ethanol facilities.

Bury

mark076h 128 days ago, made popular 128 days ago

454 diggs
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rahulbrown, on 06/06/2008, -2/+18Maybe we can feed babies beans too, for clean natural gas!
- ezran, on 06/06/2008, -1/+8feed them Indian food.
  
  Sorry, it's not politically correct, but it's all for conservations!!
- gn0stik, on 06/06/2008, -0/+2"suitable sites"
  
  uhhh landfills?
bigpj, on 06/06/2008, -0/+8interested in knowing how this works if anyone knows
- niccha, on 06/06/2008, -0/+8Nutshell version:
  
  1) Sterilize and pulp garbage using a process called Pressurized Steam Classification. This results in about 55% of the material being at a stage where it can be turned into ethanol, 25% going to recycling plants, and the rest going to the landfill.
  
  2) Turn the 55% of material from step 1 into sugars and then ferment into ethanol with yeast.
  - bigpj, on 06/06/2008, -0/+6thanks,
    
    do you know specifically (ie. chemically) how the first step works?
    - niccha, on 06/06/2008, -0/+5Actually, the first step is mostly a physical degradation. Its like a large autoclave. The steam sterilizes the material. The pressure and agitation pulp it. The result is a nasty mush filled with some portion of hard recyclables and other waste that can be sifted out. Pressurized Steam Classification has been used by the paper industry to produce cellulosic material for paper production.
      
      The second step is where the chemistry really starts
    - xatx2, on 06/07/2008, -0/+3awesome, thanks
    - bigpj, on 06/07/2008, -0/+2thanks, organic synthesis has screwed me up
- KMartSheriff, on 06/06/2008, -0/+2The better question is does it smell like ***** coming out the exhaust? If not, then I'm all for it.
- gn0stik, on 06/06/2008, -0/+1bacteria.
DrCrankenstein, on 06/06/2008, -1/+15-You think the poop fuel was a really great idea?
-Sure it was. The guy made a million dollars. You know, I had an idea like that once. A long time ago. It was a "Jump to Conclusions" mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor, and it would have different conclusions written on it that you could... jump to.
- floort, on 06/06/2008, -0/+3I'll buy one...
- chrisinsocalif, on 06/06/2008, -0/+7...And I said, I don't care if they lay me off either, because I told, I told Bill that if they move my desk one more time, then, then I'm, I'm quitting, I'm going to quit. And, and I told Don too, because they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels, and they were marry, but then, they switched from the Swingline to the Boston stapler, but I kept my Swingline stapler because it didn't bind up as much, and I kept the staples for the Swingline stapler and it's not okay because if they take my stapler then I'll set the building on fire...
eeemart, on 06/06/2008, -0/+8with my intolerance to lactose, gimme a gallon of milk, and i could keep a car running for weeks!
- skidzilla, on 06/07/2008, -0/+2I'm looking forward to the day I can take a sh*t into my car's gas tank. :P
  
  Isn't the 21st century wonderful?
SpostareDuro, on 06/06/2008, -0/+5everything that comes out my ex's mouth could be used to save the planet! maybe i should take him back!
ezran, on 06/06/2008, -0/+3Modern gold rush: poo digger
chrisinsocalif, on 06/06/2008, -0/+4Sounds like Taco Bell will be involuntarily eco friendly!
overtoke, on 06/06/2008, -0/+6We need more ***** like this for sure.
Brian48216, on 06/06/2008, -1/+6Mr. Fusion is probably right around the corner then!
- j3ff86, on 06/06/2008, -0/+3Mr. Fusion powered the time circuits and flux capacitor.. not the internal combustion engine. I guess an electric engine would work though!
  - BigW, on 06/06/2008, -0/+2It also powered the hover capability of the Delorean, which was rendered useless by the lightning strike.
    
    Of course in Back to the Future II we had both Mr. Fusion and flying cars by 2015. I want my flying car!!! (with a side of Mr. Fusion)
EruditeGoof, on 06/06/2008, -0/+9What a ***** idea.
KMartSheriff, on 06/06/2008, -1/+2Crappy article.
Suits, on 06/06/2008, -0/+4McCain added, "Deliver Bottled Hot Water To Dehydrated Babies for added Bioy-goodness"

Associated Press Confirms.
darkciti2, on 06/06/2008, -0/+2This alone can't solve our energy crisis. There aren't enough babies and certainly not enough diapers to power the entire US and our population of 330+ million people.

However, as a piece of the puzzle, maybe...
- BigW, on 06/06/2008, -0/+1Another part of this would be mining the landfills for more material to process. There's decades of garbage out there to use....
Beanbones, on 06/06/2008, -0/+4OH SHI-
rodgerse, on 06/06/2008, -2/+0Dude, your bullsh*t tittle didn't fool anyone, or me atleast.I swear, half of front-page diggs are like this, not enough actual stories to avoid sensationlism, huh?.

Granted there an expanding company, but there is nothing new or special about ethanol from house-hold garbage., which is ALL the article meant, and it didn't need the bs diaper tittle.
monsterette, on 06/06/2008, -0/+2...good read....
DeskFlyer, on 06/06/2008, -2/+4I think we should just convert babies directly into ethanol.
spiritflare1, on 06/06/2008, -0/+2talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater
sndchsr, on 06/06/2008, -1/+2Turning cars into fartmobiles will do wonders for the environment! Let's stick with french fry grease please.
shdwsclan, on 06/06/2008, -0/+1I should start selling my trash...
ecobites, on 06/07/2008, -0/+2Great title - when you think that disposable diapers will outlive all of us, something has to be done with them in landfill!!!
iamjames, on 06/07/2008, -0/+1when you use french fry oil for fuel your car smells like fries, so if you use dirty diapers for fuel what does your car smell like?
Twenty, on 06/07/2008, -0/+4I really hope green tech isn't a bubble. It seems that there are so many ideas posted everyday in digg. I can't imagine more than half of them will reach fruition, much less make a large impact on our energy consumption.
- BikerDude69, on 06/07/2008, -0/+3That's what Digg is for... so we can be informed, take action and follow up. ...or just sit here and bitch. Take your pick.
NelsonR, on 06/07/2008, -0/+1The most impressive bio fuel idea put forth so far is the idea of a gentlemen in Arizona who has greenhouses turning out algae simple and inexpensively. Stating that with thousands of these America could be self sufficient in it's energy needs should be a given over turning our food base, CORN into limited bio fuel production.
What's up with our inane leadership within America, Brazil uses sugar cane and we use a food product that is limited in nature. What the F is wrong here?
It's called corruption, lobbyist and influence peddling and fattening the wallets of our representatives while America sinks daily.
atavena, on 06/07/2008, -0/+2Oil just shot up $11 - poop fuel needs to happen sooner than later.
KingGorilla, on 06/07/2008, -0/+2You know what they say. One man's poop is another man's treasure!
trestevenson, on 06/07/2008, -0/+2I notice a lot of empty cases of beer in that garbage pile. Looks like somebody had a party!
joeanon, on 06/07/2008, -0/+3These markets will die as cheaper biofuels make them unreasonably expensive.

Markets such as collecting waste vegetable oil and converting common waste to gas will simply never compete with bioffuels such as algae.

It's not about how cheap garbage is, it's about the overall cost to create fuel.

We are experiencing only a temporary, not permanent gas spike due to corrupt investors and the fallen dollar. That simply will not last.

As the US invests in biofuel such as algae the oil producing nations will desperately lower oil prices to try to kill our biofuel industry.
sabrinacle, on 06/07/2008, -0/+1I always thought there should be some kind of second use for all those dirty diapers I have changed. Three kids, four grand kids. Wow I would never have to buy gas again.
andrewpmk, on 06/08/2008, -0/+1Use cloth diapers. They're cheaper.
BigJonRH, on 06/16/2008, -0/+0Biomass ethanol is the future! No end in sight for the supply of household garbage!
capellathestar, on 06/19/2008, -0/+1Are we going to need baby-farms to keep up with the demand for fuel?
mydave, on 08/12/2008, -0/+0interesting, but how does it work?
http://www.antdepo.org
http://sooslic.com/?id=674
http://www.devserve.co.za/
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CleanTech Biofuels to Turn Dirty Diapers Into Ethanol

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