Quote:
Originally Posted by Ladogaboy
Well, here are a few points:
It doesn't HAVE to be portable; however, it does require a huge amount of thermal energy. ICE are very inefficient, and most of that inefficiency is lost in thermal energy. Recouping even a moderate percentage of that energy in the form of fuel could be a good thing.
In terms of trash, why not plastics? They seem to be the most readily available, filling up landfills everywhere, taking forever to break down, etc.
As for fuel type, it could be heating oil, or fuel to run the vehicle that is processing it.
And the biodiesel is a good tangent. Just as jamesqf said, previously, companies were having to pay people to haul it off... Now they can't help getting rid of it. Maybe the same will be true of these plastics that are choking up the environment?
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I was just trying to get some specifics, if you had some in mind. Typically TDP will give combustible oils, and most people don't drive vehicles that can use them. By burdening a vehicle with a portable unit, you lose a lot of load capacity for not much gain.
I'd be all for recycling plastics in other ways, but that carbon came from fossil sources, and I don't think we should be burning it, even in a clean way. That carbon, if not re-used as plastic, should go back into the ground and get re-sequestered.