The military has long had the problem of having to ship fuel to mobile military units. And as we have found out in Iraq, those fuel shipments make ideal targets for attack.
In an effort to lower the amount of fuel needed to be transported, the military has been researching ways to produce electricity on location from trash.
Defense Life Sciences, based in McLean, Va., was given a contract to come up with a solution. It teamed with a group of researchers at Purdue University and developed two 4-ton “tactical bio-refineries” that they are preparing to send to Iraq next month. Each can run for 20 hours on a ton of trash — enough electricity to power a small village.
Organic garbage is fed into a reactor, in which it is fermented into ethanol. Then plastic, cardboard and other paper items are burned to create propane or methane. These elements are then combusted in a modified diesel engine to power a 60 kilowatt generator.
The prototype costs $1 million and is now ready to be tested in a war zone.
Source : FOXNews
No comments:
Post a Comment