Is Vitroleum too good to be true?

[Sufferin' Prius Envy]

"The “Rivera Method” takes such agricultural refuse as cracked soy beans, rice and cotton seed hulls, grain sorghum, milo and jatropha and turns them into bio-crude oil. This crude – or Vetroleum, as Rivera calls it - can then be further refined into everything from gasoline to jet fuel and just about every petrochemical in between.

With this process, just one bushel (60 pounds) of organic waste can yield about six gallons of bio-crude, Rivera said.

What’s more, Rivera claims that products made from Vetroleum burn at near 100 percent efficiency, leaving behind neither heat nor pollution as proof of the chemical reactions taking place."
Houston Community Newspapers Online - Green fuel, made at home

Well, wouldn't that be cool.

[qbee42]

Originally Posted by Sufferin' Prius Envy

... leaving behind neither heat nor pollution as proof of the chemical reactions taking place."

This line alone guarantees that the statement is untrue. This is not possible with any fuel.

Tom

[tripp]

Sounds like some sorta pyrolysis process until the line that Tom pointed out. That sends up a rather massive red flag.

[tripp]

Besides anything with Geraldo's name on it has to be suspect.

[dogfriend]

Originally Posted by tripp

Besides anything with Geraldo's name on it has to be suspect.

Unless its a new line of throwable furniture.

[tripp]

Originally Posted by dogfriend

Unless its a new line of throwable furniture.

Brilliant, mate. Brilliant.

[MegansPrius]

There's at least one blogger (not that that's defnitive, I know) calling this "vetroleum" a ponzi scheme, and he makes a pretty good case for it.

Nom de guerre: Rivrdog: Scam alert!
First it was "Carbon Credits", the Ponzi Scheme of all time, now it's "Vetroleum"
Read this article. Read it knowing it has been written to bamboozle the reader.
Let's take some principles of the old "snake oil" type of scam and see if we can find them here.
1. Find everything a new name to make an older process (in this case, making biodiesel) seem like a breakthrough. We start with the very catchy word "Vetroleum". No, that's not correct. we should start with the reference "biocrude". It doesn't exist. Crude oil is a specific substance, namely petroleum oil pumped right out of the ground. It is "crude" or un-refined. There is no such thing as "bio-crude". If you are going to make biodiesel, you start with raw materials called biomass. At some point in your very long (not "8-minute") reaction, the substance you are cooking down in the presence of reagents, at high pressure, takes on characteristics of a long-chain oil molecule. You may then refine that substance, once it is fractionated (distilled and the fractional compounds removed) in the process (which is not called a "time reaction", it's Catalytic Cracking) into other products (in this case, they seemed to have refined it down into a form of volatile fuel usable as gasoline, but that is a HUGE waste of time, refining equipment and energy, it should be left at the earlier state where it resembles diesel).

More analysis at the link.

[tripp]

I disagree with that blogger. It was be a load of shite (prolly is) but it's not talking about biodiesel from what I can tell. Like I said earlier, it sounds more like a pyrolysis/FT process which DOES lead to a biocrude and hence can be refined into all sorts of petrochemicals. Again, it sounds bogus, but we're not talking about biodiesel here. The claims are utter tosh so I'm sure it's snake oil (bio snake oil, at least ).

[MegansPrius]

Originally Posted by tripp

I disagree with that blogger. It was be a load of shite (prolly is) but it's not talking about biodiesel from what I can tell. Like I said earlier, it sounds more like a pyrolysis/FT process which DOES lead to a biocrude and hence can be refined into all sorts of petrochemicals. Again, it sounds bogus, but we're not talking about biodiesel here. The claims are utter tosh so I'm sure it's snake oil (bio snake oil, at least ).

Ah, well, there ya go. That's what I get for rushing and cross-posting something I hadn't check out myself. Thanks tripp.

With an eensy bit more digging, it does indeed seem likely this thing's a scam

Judge OKs Rivera fraud suit
A judge denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against local biofuel developer John Rivera Thursday. A Canadian company, Noront Recycling, filed suit in chancery court against Rivera in early August for alleged fraud, among other things.

[tripp]

Yeah, there was little doubt this guy is a complete tosser. The sad thing is that people were duped it would appear.