Question

A company that has developed a process for converting organic waste and other biomass into gasoline recently announced a partnership with Waste Management (Links to an external site.), the giant garbage-collection, and disposal company. They are converting all acids from the waste into vinegar and then generating gasoline from the vinegar.

Do you think is this a proper strategy for waste management? Explain your reasons. [3]

If you wanted to do this project, how could you change it to be more sustainable? [3]

Answer 1

This technique is a good approach for the production of fuels. This technique has an advantage as the combination of organisms are used, taken from salt marshes, are modified to survive in the wild. These organisms don’t require particular sterile environments desirable to avoid single-organism cultures from being contaminated, which takes down the cost of types of equipment.

These organisms easily break down the biomass into carboxylic acids, like acetic acid, the main component of vinegar. These acids can serve up as chemical originators for a wide diversity of fuels and chemicals, including diesel and gasoline, through processing steps that change the acids into alcohols ketones. These acids can be prepared without the costly equipment necessary for high-pressure and temperature procedures.

If I have to do this project, I would like to locate composting centers near sources of biomass–such as municipal landfills or farms for easy management. And also would like to use a complex mixture of organisms rather than a single organism for the composting.