A method of creating a multi-phase fuel wherein said fuel comprises a gas, a solid, a liquid solvent phase and an aqueous phase from animal waste comprising the combination of the animal waste, a solvent, and a water/alcohol solution into a fluid mixture, placing the mixture into a closed reactor, heating said reactor between about 245.degree. C. and 385.degree. C. for between about 5 and 70 minutes and cooling said resulting multi-phase fuel. The animal waste may be manure, mortalities, municipal waste, or chicken litter. The preferred solvent is petroleum with the preferred petroleum being diesel fuel. The final multi-phase fuel can be separated into four separate fuels: a solid fuel, an emulsified solid in the liquid solvent phase by blending the solid, the solvent and a surfactant, an aqueous phase, and the recovered liquid solvent phase. Petroleum is the preferred solvent and the separation may be any conventional means. The mixture preferably consists of 1 part by weight animal waste, about 1.5 parts by weight diesel and between about 0.11 to about 1.86 parts by weight a water/alcohol solution. The water/alcohol solution is between about 5% to about 85% alcohol before heating. Additionally, an alkali base may be added to increase waste solubility.
1. A fuel reactant mixture comprising about 1 part by weight animal waste, about 1.5 parts by weight petroleum based solvent and between about 0.11 to about 1.86 parts by weight a water/alcohol solution, wherein said water/alcohol solution is between about 5% to about 85% alcohol. 3. The fuel reactant mixture of claim 1 wherein said animal waste is selected from one or more of the group consisting of manure, mortalities, municipal waste, and chicken litter. 4. The fuel reactant mixture of claim 1 wherein said petroleum based solvent is diesel. 5. The fuel reactant mixture of claim 1 further comprising adding an alkali base to said mixture. 6. The fuel reactant mixture of claim 5 wherein said alkali base is sodium hydroxide. 7. The fuel reactant mixture of claim 1 wherein said alcohol is normal propyl alcohol. 8. The fuel reactant mixture of claim 1 wherein said water/alcohol solution is about 25% alcohol. 9. The fuel reactant mixture of claim 1 wherein said water/alcohol solution is about 1 part per weight. 10. The fuel reactant mixture of claim 1 further comprising mixing said animal waste, said petroleum based solving, and said water/alcohol solution into a fluid solution. 11. The fuel reactant mixture of claim 10 further comprising heating said mixture for an effective time and effective heat to produce a multi-phase fuel. 12. The fuel reactant mixture of claim 11 wherein said multi-phase fuel is further comprised of an aqueous phase fuel, a liquid solvent phase fuel, a solid fuel, and a gas."
We congratulate, of course, WVU on this achievement. The conversion of any bio-based resource into liquid fuel represents a step forward in both domestic liquid fuel self-sufficiency and carbon recycling.
But: We are allowing China to patent the West Virginia Process for direct coal liquefaction, and we have herein only a consolation prize. We Mountaineers, while paying royalties to China, when we eventually get around to converting our vast reserves of coal into the liquid fuels we need, will be able to liquefy, free of foreign charges, all the animal corpses and manure we can scrape together. Does that mean we'll be converting ourselves into liquid fuel? One might think so, since, if we do allow the game play out the way it appears, then we are, and will remain, really, nothing more than horses' patoots, full of BS.