For the past couple of days I have been getting some disturbing reports from the military. No, this is not regarding new missiles or even nukes. This is in fact more disturbing and makes you wonder if these guys have finally lost it. They are actually turning towards fuel efficiency and recycling! Yes, that is true. The US Armed Forces is now starting to care about the environment that surrounds it. Now, I do not want to be derogatory towards the brave dudes who risk their all for the nation as they are mere pawns in a larger game, but it really is still surprisingly nice to hear such news. It seems those who dawn the green are finally going green.
This may not have to deal entirely with the environment and might be a result of the growing energy crisis, but it still is a step very much welcome. The Army is trying to turn some of that military excess into reclaimed power by deploying two trash-chomping bio-refineries to Iraq. Called “tactical bio-refineries, each unit weighs about 4 tons and makes trash into fuel for an on-board 60-kilowatt generator. The bio-refineries are designed to ingest unfiltered garbage, from, say, a barracks or a mess hall.
The garbage collected from the barracks is ground up and organic food waste is separated out and fermented into ethanol while other waste, including plastics and cardboard, is heated and gasified into low-grade propane or methane in a parallel system. The resulting fuels are burned in a modified diesel engine to produce green electricity. What actually makes the bio-refinery “tactical” is its size: roughly that of a small moving van, which makes it easy to deploy in battle or transport for disaster relief. (I knew there was a reason for that name). Even better, researchers tested the unit in November and found that it produced 90 percent more energy than it consumed. It seems we have one green, mean machine at our hands here.
