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Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 15:09:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Green Bean
Subject: Company Turning Garbage Into Oil?

Company Seeks Fortune Turning Garbage Into Oil
Sun Jul 20, 4:20 PM ET

By Francesca Segre

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Finally, a possible use for
old tires and turkey bones.

A privately held company run by a former candy
salesman is working on turning everyday garbage into
oil that can be used to heat homes and turned into
fuel to power car engines.

Changing World Technologies has built a pilot plant in
a Philadelphia Navy Yard warehouse that uses a process
called thermal depolymerization to mimic and speed up
the natural process for making oil.

The West Hempstead, New York-based company has already
turned personal computers, old tires and even turkey
bones and feathers into oil, Chief Executive Brian
Appel said.

"We are supercharging that process and doing in
minutes what the earth would naturally do over
hundreds of thousands of years," Appel said.

Changing World Technologies said the advantages of
making oil from garbage is that it controls waste
while also reducing dependence on foreign oil and
slowing global warming (news - web sites).

But not everyone is convinced.

"(The process) sounds like an interesting chemical
innovation but unless you can prove who can use the
oil and how, its market value is not clear," said
Sarah Emerson, managing director of Energy Security
Analysis Inc., an independent energy research firm.

Instead of waiting for nature to take its course --
that is for decomposing plants and animals to be
mashed, pressured and heated by sliding tectonic
plates -- Changing World Technologies uses a shredding
and grinding machine.

GRINDING OUT OIL

The machine loudly grinds the waste into a slurry
mixture, which is then fed through an intense heating
and pressuring process that separates out oil. The oil
is then refined.

Proof the process works on a larger scale will come
when the company opens its first plant later this
year, Appel said.

Changing World Technologies has created a joint
venture with ConAgra Foods Inc., the second largest
U.S. food maker, to build a plant in Missouri near
ConAgra's ButterBall turkey factory.

The plant is designed to process 200 tons of turkey
bones and feathers daily into various products
including more than 500 barrels of oil, Changing World
Technologies said.

But critics question the technology's ability to move
from small scale production to a large facility.

"It might work in the lab, but when you put it on a
larger scale it becomes a daunting task," said Fadel
Gheit, an oil analyst at Fahnestock & Co. and a former
engineer.

"It is uneconomic and it's not feasible," he said.



Predicting critics will be proven wrong, Appel, who
was once a sales representative for Russell Stover
Candies and worked in business development for
Ticketmaster, estimates Changing World Technologies
will be able to produce oil at a cost of $15 a barrel.

That's about half the wholesale price for a barrel of
oil. In a few years, the cost will drop to $10 --
which is about what Appel said mid-sized exploration
and production companies spend -- and then down to $6
to $8 per barrel.

Changing World Technologies said it is not the first
to convert organic and other products into oil. But
others have failed because the process was too
expensive to operate or consumed too much energy.

The government and private industry are betting that
the garbage-into-oil process could revolutionize the
energy industry. The U.S. Department of Energy (news -
web sites) and the Environmental Protection Agency
(news - web sites) have given Changing World
Technologies $21 million in grants.

The company raised another $50 million from investors
including Howard Buffet, the son of Warren Buffet, and
James Woolsey, former director of the Central
Intelligence Agency (news - web sites).

But Fahnestock's Gheit remains unconvinced. "Having
this technology next to a slaughterhouse this is
something else, this is a garbage disposal business it
has nothing to do with energy."