Comments
rodrigkn t1_it75ng3 wrote
Remember when they said similar sludge could be used as fertilizer? Now tracts of land contain toxic forever chemicals and nothing is allowed to be grown due to public safety.
Precedence is not on their side.
krumpdawg t1_it765a5 wrote
Or when they told us they would make artificial reefs out of old tires.
FuturologyBot t1_it771bn wrote
The following submission statement was provided by /u/mutherhrg:
Hong Kong, a densely populated city where over a thousand tonnes of sewage sludge is generated per day, should develop carbon-neutral processes to turn the waste into valuable products as part of its decarbonisation strategy, according to an academic.
Ren has secured three grants from the government to conduct research on converting used medical face masks, poultry litter and sewage sludge into energy and valuable products.
To tackle the problems and lower costs, Ren said his team aims to develop processes that can incorporate multiple feedstocks and produce multiple products, such as using face masks as one of the feedstocks and upgrading the primary product into bio-oil, a clean-burning fuel.
Sludge, the mud-like by-product of sewage treatment, can be used as feedstock to make methanol, a motor fuel and industrial chemical, said Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s industrial and systems engineering professor Ren Jingzheng, the recipient of the 2022 Apec Science Prize for Innovation, Research and Education (Aspire).
The carbon emission per kilogram of methanol produced from sludge is 2.1kg, a quarter less than the 2.9kg emitted if coal is the feedstock, Ren and his research team estimated. “In mainland China, methanol is mostly produced from coal,” Ren said in an interview with the South China Morning Post. “Our process of producing it from sludge could lead to less carbon dioxide emission, but the cost will be high. We are still working on ways to reduce it.”
If all of the around 1,200 tonnes of sludge generated in the city every day is converted to 400 tonnes of methanol, this could generate 400 tonnes of methanol worth US$160,000 a day at current market prices. The process could also reduce 120,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission from energy consumption, compared to methanol produced from coal, Ren’s team said. It amounts to 6.7 per cent of Hong Kong’s total emissions from industrial processes and product use, and 0.4 per cent of the city’s total carbon emissions.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/y9sgxo/sewage_sludge_and_other_waste_products_could_be/it737js/
Still-WFPB t1_it79nxc wrote
Remember when japanese researcher said he's designed foodsafe shitburgers but he'll have a hard time marketing the product?
mutherhrg OP t1_it7b7n7 wrote
Turning this sludge into industrial feedstock isn't quite the same as spreading it across a field.
henry_sqared t1_it7e13r wrote
Remember when they said that rendered meat (aka roadkill) could be used as feedstock and we had mad cow outbreaks?
weebeardedman t1_it7ezgt wrote
I mean, to be fair, we've explicitly known chemicals like pfos/pfas are both toxic and invasive (as to say, easily travels through surface to reach watertable) since the 50's/60's we just didn't give a shit
rodrigkn t1_it7moz5 wrote
I would consider it worse. Through the process of bio magnification, we can see repercussions in the consumers gut biome and nutritional quality. Possibly even carcinogenic.
From an economic perspective, I also think it would be hard for them to find ã consumer base if forced to disclose this practice.
rodrigkn t1_it7muai wrote
Ah yes! The 2000’s were wild times.
rodrigkn t1_it7mzp0 wrote
The trick to not having carcinogens is to not measure for carcinogens. 😉
sambull t1_it7nhy4 wrote
that shit literally drove my grandma away from her land... they'd open spread it on the neighboring farms and it would smell like literal human shit. She still thinks it was on purpose to destroy the local farmers.
mutherhrg OP t1_it7nlon wrote
Do you even know what industrial feedstock even means?
mutherhrg OP t1_it7np6s wrote
Do you even know what industrial feedstock even means?
cknipe t1_it7owwk wrote
Does it not mean making stuff out of poop?
mutherhrg OP t1_it7pjwb wrote
And how is that bad? Would you rather that they dig up coal and use it? Or simply dump this waste into landfill or into the ocean? This stuff is for industrial use, it's meant to be processed and used in factories, alongside other feedstock that's so toxic that you can't touch it with your bare hands. It's just a nice method of recycling already processed and dirty material.
diemaia t1_it7qoch wrote
No. The article mean using sludge to produce methane, as a biogas. The sludge would be used as a feedstock to bacteria, who then turn it in methane. That's nothing new. Bioreactors as UASB does this for a while.
PortiaLabiata t1_it7rhku wrote
TIL industrial feedstock doesn't actually mean food for lifestock.
[deleted] t1_it8752a wrote
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TheRoadsMustRoll t1_it8c7li wrote
lol. they don't.
for the benefit of reddit's soylent-green-fearing constituency i'll post a simple google definition:
"Industrial feedstocks are raw materials used to make industrial products"
so. think gaskets and road paving products. not animal feed.
___Price___ t1_it8emt5 wrote
Industrial feedstocks are raw materials used to make industrial products and thousands of consumer goods. Many industrial products are made from oil and natural gas feedstocks, which have a high energy content that could otherwise be used as fuel to heat homes, run vehicles, and power manufacturing processes.
Had to google it.
OrangeJr36 t1_it8f1ak wrote
You got it, it's only for industry.
Sometimes you will see a sign at a farm while driving by with that says "not for human consumption" oftentimes it's industrial feedstock
thrillcosbey t1_it8gwwq wrote
Soylent brown!
geraldbowman t1_it8j0bd wrote
Feed pollution to our livestock and pollute the entire food chain. Brilliant.
dreadnaught_2099 t1_it8tljj wrote
To be fair, feedstock, while a 100% accurate term, is misleading because every reader thinks it's related to the term "foodstock" which of course it isn't.
TheRoadsMustRoll t1_it8v0nx wrote
agreed.
but it also outs the people that didn't read the article because it says right under the headline: "Sewage sludge used as feedstock to make methanol"
[deleted] t1_it8y915 wrote
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mango-vitc t1_it9r2fg wrote
What a great idea. Not surprisingly from China. Let’s feed toxic garbage to animals that humans eat.
From the fine scientists in China.
[deleted] t1_itahn8x wrote
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[deleted] t1_itahptc wrote
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imakesawdust t1_itakp45 wrote
Why? Do you expect methanol buyers to balk at buying methanol that came from sludge feedstock?
GoOnandgrow t1_itas8xc wrote
There was a big TIL embedded in this post
Able-Emotion4416 t1_itgqzoi wrote
My African family still lives today in the ways of our ancestors: traditional subsistence farming, in natures rhythm. With little to no modern objects. (although, we did start to finance them modern tools, such as a electric stove, solar panels, etc. ).
When I visited them, they would ask question about life in the West. And I would tell them as best I could using simple words that they can understand in their context. And oh my God, the present is already bleak. Very bleak. I realized that while telling them, and they often looked at me with shock and horror.
There's also the stories of hunter-gatherer people from the Amazon forests and the Congo rain forests being invited to visit New-York. Usually, they hate it. The noise, the smells, the dirt, the food, the artificial lights, etc. They even felt ill often.
The only people who love developed Western world are those that have already lived in cities in the developing world. As it's an improvement for them. But for people like my African family, and for hunter gatherers, cities and modern development, be they Western or 3rd world, are usually hated as they look very dystopian for them.
chamillus t1_ith4vvf wrote
WTF are you talking about. No one is drinking methanol.
chamillus t1_ith4ym1 wrote
How is this at all relevant to the article?
[deleted] t1_ith5kbd wrote
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chamillus t1_ith5onz wrote
Do you know how to read?
mutherhrg OP t1_it737js wrote
Hong Kong, a densely populated city where over a thousand tonnes of sewage sludge is generated per day, should develop carbon-neutral processes to turn the waste into valuable products as part of its decarbonisation strategy, according to an academic.
Ren has secured three grants from the government to conduct research on converting used medical face masks, poultry litter and sewage sludge into energy and valuable products.
To tackle the problems and lower costs, Ren said his team aims to develop processes that can incorporate multiple feedstocks and produce multiple products, such as using face masks as one of the feedstocks and upgrading the primary product into bio-oil, a clean-burning fuel.
Sludge, the mud-like by-product of sewage treatment, can be used as feedstock to make methanol, a motor fuel and industrial chemical, said Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s industrial and systems engineering professor Ren Jingzheng, the recipient of the 2022 Apec Science Prize for Innovation, Research and Education (Aspire).
The carbon emission per kilogram of methanol produced from sludge is 2.1kg, a quarter less than the 2.9kg emitted if coal is the feedstock, Ren and his research team estimated. “In mainland China, methanol is mostly produced from coal,” Ren said in an interview with the South China Morning Post. “Our process of producing it from sludge could lead to less carbon dioxide emission, but the cost will be high. We are still working on ways to reduce it.”
If all of the around 1,200 tonnes of sludge generated in the city every day is converted to 400 tonnes of methanol, this could generate 400 tonnes of methanol worth US$160,000 a day at current market prices. The process could also reduce 120,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission from energy consumption, compared to methanol produced from coal, Ren’s team said. It amounts to 6.7 per cent of Hong Kong’s total emissions from industrial processes and product use, and 0.4 per cent of the city’s total carbon emissions.