January 20, 2007

FAQ: BIOwaste Blog


1. What is "BIOwaste"?

BIOwaste is our name for the broad spectrum of unrecycled, unconverted, uncaptured carboniferous output from worldwide agricultural, forestry, and urban sources. This includes emissions from combustion and the purges of gasification and similar process residues.

2. What is the focus of the BIOwaste Blog?

The fourth of four biomass conversion blogs, this one is intended to help focus attention to the convertable potential of what we conventionally call "waste." Articles in this blog focus more on urban sources of waste - municipal solid wastes (MSW), solid wastes, biosolids, etc. - while forestry and agricultural sources are more generally covered in the BIOstock Blog. The other three related blogs are the BIOstock Blog, BIOconversion Blog, and the BIOoutput Blog.

It is our contention that potential energy found in waste represents a prime business and societal opportunity because converting waste into products or energy is found income, waste as a feedstock has a "negative" cost value, diverting waste from landfills reduces waste management problems, and a variety of social costs (mainly pollution and global warming) can be mitigated.

3. What is the significance of the Rubik's cube imagery on the Blogs?

The Rubik's cube is emblematic of the multi-faceted energy puzzle that confronts civilization. This four blog series is my attempt to create some semblance of order out of the chaos of global interlinking challenges - geopolitics, employment, pollution, energy, waste, carbon emissions, etc. Each Blog is an attempt to work on a side of the puzzle - BIOstock, BIOconversion, BIOoutput, and BIOwaste. Solve these and I believe many international problems will be substantially mitigated.

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