Noteboom The Law Firm

Army Pilot Program Turns Waste Into Fuel

January 14, 2011 - The Department of Defense (DoD) and a Presidential Directive has been holding the military to strict standards concerning the use of alternative fuels and reducing the military's carbon footprint. Naturally many bases in California have implemented various alternatives using solar power. That is something Maryland cannot seem to do. Instead, they're using a different form of alternative fuel.

A new Army pilot program is seeking to derive energy from garbage. This is not just a common trash burning incinerator as is used in many municipal waste-to-fuel plants, this is something different.

On average, 500 people produce approximately 2,500 pounds of trash every day. As developed by the Edgewood, Md., Chemical Biological Center, the Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery will hopefully be able to convert those 2,500 pounds of trash to enough gas to drive a small electric generator.

The conversion occurs over a series of steps. First, the garbage is metabolized and turned into ethanol. Second, all waste that remained undigested is compressed into pellets. Third, those pellets are then turned into gas and poured into the generator as fuel. The by-product from the conversion is a fine, benign ash.

In what will undoubtedly make many happy, the Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery has a zero carbon footprint. Should the process work efficiently, it would not be hard to see the energy refiner become more wide-spread.