Waste Management

Recently, a new technology has come out that turns our everyday landfill waste into high quality oil, gas, water, and a carbon based residue.

Neatest thing about it... it thrives on organic waste. Anything Carbon based, including and especially plastics can be processed in this way. Turkey waste... industrial quantities of bird shit, feathers, bones, fat and other not so tasty scrap bits go into this large machine and out comes a light fuel oil - almost exactly the same kind thats used to heat homes.

This is a no-brainer for the eco-city we're looking to build here. All of the waste generated by human living, sewage included can be processed though a machine that feeds fuel, natural gas, electricity and gray water back into the system. This thing doesn't even have to make a 'profit' per say but the latest on the big industrial plant where they've been proving the concept just put them past the break-even point after 3 years... with profits coming.

Feedstock [10]	Output	Feedstock	Output	Feedstock	Output
Plastic bottles	Oil 70 % Gas 16 % Carbon solids 6 % Water 8 %	Turkey offal	Oil 39 % Gas 6 % Carbon solids 5 % Water 50 %	Paper (cellulose)	Oil 8 % Gas 48 % Carbon solids 24 % Water 20 %
Sewage sludge	Oil 26 % Gas 9 % Carbon solids 8 % Water 57 %	Medical waste	Oil 65 % Gas 10 % Carbon solids 5 % Water 20 %	Tires	Oil 44 % Gas 10 % Carbon and metal solids 42 % Water 4 %

Note those carbon solids... those are excellent fertilizers which could be used in the Vertical Farm.

The natural gas could be fed into heating & electricity generation systems. If it's possible, I'd like to use some of this in stove top cooking but I don't know if the gas produced is capable of this.

Note that this oil can be easily refined into a diesel. Full burner personal vehicles are banned from the premises BTW! - no rampant polluting in this place! The oil can be used to provide fuel for the hybrid cars everyone is driving. This thing will also need a truck fleet to support it and since I don't yet see any major improvements in 18 wheeler hybrids, this fuel oil could be used by this fleet. Many other industrial options are available for that oil - I'm sure that I'm just scratching the surface


With our solid waste management being handled by the thermal separation, normal household trash, especially plastic based is welcome for its contribution to the natural gas, oil and electricity of the place. Nothing is 'waste' any more... everything cycles into an input for the next step. What we normally think of as stuff going to the dump - is now an integral part of the contribution to our sustainability. Even and especially that most noxious of human waste... our own poo. Solid sludges are fed into the thermal separation while liquid move on to the next step bio-remediation.

Water Cycle
Bring in the gray and black water left over from the thermal seperation, rainwater collection, irrigation runoff and of course human activity into a living machine.

A living machine has several major advantages to conventional waste water treatment:

• No toxic sludge bi-product from chemical use to sterilize & treat
• Sequestration of heavy metals - can even be designed into specific plants for special disposal later
• Reduced capital, human and energy investment to maintain the system

Now, a living machine doesn't get us to 'pure' yet. And it's possible we'll have to do a few more steps of bio, mechanical and chemical filtration to make it potable but there is another route to drinking water. Transpiration from the plants in the farm. Watering the plants would be a precise endeavor with each planting getting only the water it needs. Don't think about large rooms filled with spraying water - that's more likely to be used as a rain simulation for washing the plants. A drip or other hydroponic solutions that have controlled water and nutrient flow would deliver just the water necessary for the plant to thrive.

So - all that fresh open air above the plants is has pure and highly oxygenated water floating around in vapor form... enter another wonder of our world... condensation. You run chilled pipes or a depressurization system with a condensation water capture system and that pure floating water comes trickling in a steady rain that can be bottled or piped into peoples homes as tap water.