Reply #106: Fertilizer; Kompogas; Switzerland, Germany, Austria; kills mad cow prions

[satya]

(in response to several posts above)

(Silverhair, I'll go back and read some of your older posts; I looked for posts about Kompogas before, but not TDP--sounds like you've been as interested in this as I have been)

Kills mad cow prions, according to Kantor's 1/22/2004 article in USAToday (Sorry, my old link is dead).

Kompogas got its start in Zurich, Switzerland in the late 1980s, when inventor Walter Schmid conducted some experiments on his balcony at home. His test fermenter convinced him it would be possible to turn organic wastes (a third of the household garbage stream) into fuel and compost. The first trial plant was set up in Rumlang in 1991, and from there the concept has spread to Germany (which plans to ban landfull disposal of untreated solid waste by 2005) and Austria.

“Kompogas is like an ox,” says Schmid. “It eats, which gives it the energy it needs to power the cart. Any surplus is used as fertilizer for the fields.”

Though it works in close collaboration with municipalities, Kompogas is a profit-making business. The certified organic compost, made from food waste collected from homes, restaurants and supermarkets (and even the local McDonald’s), is a commercial product now appearing on gardens all over Europe. The company also sells the electricity it produces. Participating cities and towns also produce a revenue stream, by paying Kompogas a fee to take bio-waste to the five plants in the greater Zurich area.

Kompogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide (CO2), can be burned in a gas motor to generate electricity, or (with the CO@ removed) used to power cars and trucks (including 1,200 in the Zurich area). It produces 80 percent less smog-forming chemicals than standard gasoline. Wastewater from the process goes into aquaculture projects and liquid fertilizer.

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