Tactical Biorefineries Head To Iraq To Make Fuel From Trash

Remember Mr. Fusion from the Back To The Future movie? Doc Brown would throw cans, old shoes, banana peels, and anything else into the device which would then produce fuel to zoom around time and space. Well, the military isn’t quite pulling a Marty McFly on us yet, but their new “tactical biorefineries” are one step closer to producing a closed-loop system for waste. Specifically, the massive amounts of waste created by our armed forces. From the article,

The Army’s two prototypes of the Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery, or TGER, are shipping out to Victory Base Camp in Baghdad today for a 90 day test of the units under extreme working conditions. The refineries, which can take in food slop, plastic, paper and styrofoam and output synthetic gas or hydrous ethanol, were developed by McLean, Va.-based defense contractor Defense Life Sciences, Purdue University and the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Maryland.

Instead of being burned, the items inside the machine (after being broken down) are heated and turned into a low-grad propane. Organic materials get converted into a hydrous ethanol. Both streams are then blended together to run a standard Army 60KW generator. Each machine can handle roughly one ton of garbage per day and fits into standard ISO containers for easy transport.

If these initial test prove successful, expect the “Tigers” to be mass-produced and become a standard accessory for military divisions around the globe. Doc would be proud.

Link [CleanTech]