Waste could light 1 million N.J. homes

[jpak]

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2...

New Jersey's garbage, landfill gases and other waste could one day generate enough electricity to power a million homes, according to a report released by the state Board of Public Utilities.

That waste and other "biomass" - which includes corn, paper, grass clippings and used cooking grease, among others - could even be used to generate 300 million gallons of fuel for transportation every a year. That's roughly 5 percent of New Jersey's needs, the report said.

With the right technology and state incentives, this could all happen by 2020, according to the report.

The conversion to bioenergy would not only put New Jersey's waste to good use, it would reduce the dependence on foreign oil. That would in turn reduce the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, the prime suspect in global warming.

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[TommyO]

1. Go for it, NJ! It would also lessen their need to export their trash to PA!

Now if only NY would do the same.

[hisownpetard]

2. Time to bring back "The Sopranos"? nt

[silverweb]

3. Glad to see this expanding.

There's at least one landfill plant in operation in central Jersey, because one of my brothers has worked there for about 10 years or so.

Why there haven't been more before this, I don't know, but it's a good move.

[The2ndWheel]

4. Where does the waste of the waste go?

Does anyone know what waste is? It's built in redundancy, so that we don't kill ourselves. The human body wastes energy. If we were "on" all the time, we'd go crazy. Oddly enough, that's exactly what's happening to us.

The best way to fuck up everything quickly would be to use the energy, collect the waste, use the waste, use more energy, collect the waste from the new energy and the new waste, use that, use more energy, collect the waste from the new new energy and the new new waste, use that, etc. Not only use it, but use it at increasingly faster paces.

Not that there is waste in nature, but waste in terms of human activity is good. It keeps us from killing ourselves. Inefficiency is good. It keeps us from ripping the planet apart. We're psychotic. We can't deal with life, with existence.

"For the first time, we have an extremely detailed understanding of our bioenergy capabilities," said Margaret Brennan, who directed the biomass study for the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. "This gives us something to strive for. Before, we didn't know what the potential was."

Thankfully we didn't, or else we would've been where we are right now 100 years ago. All we have are extremely detailed understandings of how to kill life faster. Obviously that is what we want to do.

This relentless desire to control everything is going to kill us. Granted, we're not getting out alive anyway, but we're taking everything out with us. Not that anything is escaping, with the sun expanding and all. We're just speeding up the process.

[madokie]

5. if we used all the waste generated here we prolly wouldn't have to buy any oil

or very little that is from any other country. theres lots of waste just going to waste in America
Tulsa used to have a waste to energy plant but it was recently closed, nothing to do with the process or anything. they are getting cheaper rates at a landfill

http://www.tulsaaudubon.org/trash-energy-plant-closing....

[NNadir]

6. Maybe you think garbage incinerators are environmentally benign?

This would go with your claim that biomass burning, which kills more than 4 million people year according to WHO, is environmentally benign.

I note you are actively working to put particulate matter and fossil fuel poisons in my children's flesh by fostering ignorance about the Oyster Creek Nuclear Station.

Now you wish to aerosolize trash.

It's amazing how yuppies think when they're wasted on Allen's coffee brandy.

[jpak]

8. Yup

n/t

[LiberalEsto]

7. There's still a problem

about what to do with residual ash from the incineration process. This ash will contain mercury, cadmium, arsenic and other heavy metals. It will need to be landfilled or otherwise rendered harmless, if that is possible.

The incineration process will also likely release dioxin compounds into the air.

Incinerating garbage to produce energy has been batted around in New Jersey and other places for more than 20 years. Until there are answers to the potential environmental impacts, I don't see it as a good idea. NJ is polluted enough.

[diane in sf]

9. There are probably ways to harvest those heavy metals for reuse. Plants have

been used to concentrate them (mushrooms and green plants).

[Squeech]

10. Proper incineration (high enough temperature) destroys dioxins

That's one of the best arguments *for* incineration-- if you do it right.

And doing it right includes not just maintaining a high enough temperature to break down all those chlorinated hydrocarbons, but also scrubbing the smoke and gas for industrial heavy metals-- mercury, cadmium, lead, etc.

(Diane in sf at comment #9 is right to point out that there are green plants that can recover some of this stuff, but not all of it. Lead for example turns out to be resistant to this approach because most of the chemical versions of it in pollution are relatively insoluble, so the plants can't take it up through their roots with water. Researchers have had some success strewing chelating agents on brownfields to make the lead more soluble so the plants can get at it. Google "phytoremediation" for details.)