[ExI] Trash to Fuel

[Adrian Tymes]

Nice!  Would you like help getting it written up and submitted to fund
a feasibility study, either for DARPA or the DOE?  (Which will
probably be needed before funding for a pilot plant could be
obtained.)

If I might suggest an alternative to LAX, I happen to live not far
from a major PV manufacturing plant (Boviet Solar) in Greenville, NC,
and an industrial megasite being set up just north of Greenville that
could readily host this facility - and which is not that far from
Norfolk (a bit over 100 miles), with all its naval construction and
basing (possibly consuming the entire ~6M bbl/year in your estimate),
so a pipeline from the megasite to Norfolk (perhaps along - maybe even
buried in the median of - the 13 & 11 route, which is almost a
straight line) would be within the maximum budget you list (though
might be a significant portion, but given the existing right of way,
$3-5M per mile seems more likely than $8M on that route).  Greenville
is the most populated city in its area by a significant margin and
growing rapidly, so it's already the local accumulator of trash from
the region, including tires (which a regional interest in auto racing
keeps generating; NC gets around 100,000 tons/year of scrap tires, and
is already diverting some of it into "tire-derived fuels").  A
limited-scale pilot plant might rely on trucks instead of a pipeline -
not as profitable, but understood as an expense to prove out
operations - with the pipeline funded as part of scale-up.  (One might
also consider a site closer to Norfolk, but this option gives
already-allocated room to grow.)