(Image courtesy of BBC news at bbc.co.uk)
The idea of an army of un-manned, robotic harvesters traversing the midwest over and over again to mine for resources from waste-materials in the topsoil might seem like something out of science fiction. However, scientists at Purdue University have discovered a process by which they might be able to process organic waste and other biomass (ranging from wood chips to rice husks) into biofuel using mobile conversion plants. Essentially, the robots would follow a pre-determined route (much like a Roomba) and retrace this path at logical intervals to collect waste material, which they would then convert to fuel via a new process deemed "fast-hydropyrolysis-hydrodeoxygenation". Poweronline.com gave this explanation of the process:
"The new method, called fast-hydropyrolysis-hydrodeoxygenation, works by adding hydrogen into the biomass-processing reactor. The hydrogen for the mobile plants would be derived from natural gas or the biomass itself. However, Agrawal (a distinguished professor of chemical engineering at Purdue) envisions the future use of solar power to produce the hydrogen by splitting water, making the new technology entirely renewable."
For decades, man has tried to figure out ways to create self-sustaining technologies, and processes by which we can reduce or entirely eliminate our waste byproducts through recycling and other means. In agriculture, crop-rotation, mulching and controlled burns have been in use for centuries to allow resources that would otherwise go to waste work for the farmer. In the modern era, it seems like we will be able to let new, more-advanced technologies take care of that for us - and they're even automated! I'm sure if we went back ten years and told someone that there would someday soon be an affordable robot that would vacuum your house for you, they might have thought you were crazy. Today we have the Roomba, and tomorrow we'll have a robot for collecting what would otherwise be wasted from our agricultural endeavors.
For more information on this new process, follow the link:
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