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SIMILAR PROCESSES Thermal depolymerization is sometimes mistaken for similar processes:
Thermal depolymerization can change many carbon-based materials into crude oil and methane, and is not limited to manure or vegetable waste. HISTORY Thermal depolymerization is similar to the geological processes that produced the fossil fuels used today, except that the technological process occurs in a timeframe measured in Hour s. Until recently, the Human -designed processes were not efficient enough to serve as a practical source of fuel—more Energy was required than was produced. A new approach that exceeded Break-even was developed by Illinois Microbiologist Paul Baskis in the 1980s and refined over the next 15 years. The technology was finally developed for commercial use in 1996 by Changing World Technologies . Brian Appel (CEO of Changing World Technologies) took the technology in 2001 and expanded and changed it into TCP and has applied for a patent. A Thermal Depolymerization demonstration plant was completed in 1999 in Philadelphia by Thermal Depolymerization, LLC, and the first full-scale commercial plant was constructed in Carthage, Missouri , about 100 Yard s (100 M ) from ConAgra Foods ' massive Butterball turkey plant, where it is expected to process about 200 Ton s of Turkey waste into 500 Barrels (21,000 US Gallon s or 80 m³) of oil per day. THEORY AND PROCESS Previous methods to create hydrocarbons from depolymerization expend a lot of energy to remove Water from the materials. This Hydrous Pyrolysis method (U. S. patent 5,269,947) instead uses water to improve the heating process and contribute hydrogen from water to the reactions. The Feedstock material is first ground into small chunks, and mixed with water if it is especially dry. It is then fed into a reaction chamber where it is heated to around 250 ° C and subjected to 600 lbf/in² (4 MPa ) for approximately 15 minutes, after which the pressure is rapidly released to boil off most of the water. The result is a mix of crude hydrocarbons and solid Mineral s, which are separated out. The hydrocarbons are sent to a second-stage reactor where they are heated to 500 °C, further breaking down the longer chains, and the resulting mix of hydrocarbons is then distilled in a manner similar to conventional Oil Refining . Working with turkey Offal as the feedstock, the process proved to have yield efficiencies of approximately 85%; in other words, the energy contained in the end products of the process is 85% of the energy contained in the inputs to the process (most notably the energy content of the feedstock, but also including electricity for pumps and natural gas for heating). Alternatively, if one considers the energy content of the feedstock to be free (i.e., waste material from some other process), one could consider the energy efficiency of the process to be 560% (85 units of energy made available for 15 units of energy consumed). The company claims that 15 to 20% of feedstock energy is used to provide energy for the plant. The remaining energy is available in the converted product. Higher efficiencies may be possible with drier and more carbon-rich feedstocks, such as waste Plastic . By comparison, the current processes used to produce Ethanol and Biodiesel from Agricultural sources have energy efficiencies in the 320% range when the energy used to produce the feedstocks is considered (in this case, usually Sugar Cane , Corn , Soybean s and the like). As these energy efficiencies include the energy cost to produce the feedstock and the above TDP energy efficiency does not, these values are not directly comparable. The process breaks down almost all materials that are fed into it. TDP even efficiently breaks down many types of hazardous materials, such as Poison s and difficult-to-destroy biological agents such as Prion s. FEEDSTOCKS AND OUTPUTS WITH THERMAL DEPOLYMERIZATION
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