Is Vitroleum too good to be true?

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

Tom

 

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

 

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

 

Unless its a new line of throwable furniture.

 

Brilliant, mate. Brilliant.

 

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.

 

I disagree with that blogger. It was be a load of shite (probably 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.

 

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

 

Vitroleum is too good to be true, that should be obvious. Nothing wrong with turning a waste product, like offal, into a synthetic crude or synthetic fuel. Beats dumping the stinky mess into a landfill. But don't expect it to displace more than a tiny fraction of our current oil need

 

I would like to see someone come up with an economical process to convert PE plastic bags (like you get at WalMart, et. al.) into fuel. Preferably this process could be done at home in a relatively safe manner. I have way too many of those f'ing plastic bags.

 

There is. It's a revolutionary method called called plasticeum refining. With this method, you can turn one ounce of plastic bags into 5 liters of crude-gas. The black color is proof that it is crude. The floating around in the air is proof that it is gas. The method leaves behind a compact residue that can be used as compost. My tomatoes won first prize at the county fair last year, grown in nothing but crude-solids. When I tell people about it though they call me a liar.

 

This is easily solved. Take reusable bags when you go shopping. It's simple, cheap, and something you can do right now to help make a difference.

Tom

 

Yes, I know. I have some reusable bags, but often forget them in the car. Old habits die hard. Plus, I'm looking at this as a "free" source of fuel; you can get those bags for freeeeeeeeeee..........

 

A Google search came up with no results. Do you have any links or other info?

 

dragonfly's putting you on, mate.

 

Yes, I expected so, but I wanted to believe.

Sort of like how the Ford Explorer people I know want to believe in HHO.

 

Getting back to the plastic bag problem - I understand that you should refuse the plastic bags that every store is pushing and use cloth (or otherwise reuseable) bags, but unfortunately, virtually all of the stores are pushing these things at you like some kind of plastic meth dealer.

I recycle all of the plastic bags we accumulate by taking them back to the store (at least in Calif, the grocery stores will take them back) but it is kind of a pain and there is no guarantee that they still won't find their way out to the Pacific Trash Vortex.

My thought on this is if you could convert them into something useful, you could keep them out of the waste stream and give them some value so that people would be reluctant to throw them away. If the raw material was valueable enough, maybe it would be worth someone's while to go clean up all the plastic already floating out in the Pacific.

 

Yeah, I hear ya. What's HHO, BTW. LOL.

Stores here in Denvah are starting to hawk cloth bags and you get a $0.05 refund per bad that you don't use, so they even have an ROI. I've noticed more and more people walking into the store with bags in hand, which is a positive sign. Still, the bloody things are ubiquitous and, during the winter, it's not uncommon to see them flying like semaphore flags from the tops of trees.