eNews

Even as gas prices climb during these cold winter months, the US Army is investing in technology that promises to convert garbage into oil. We reported in the December 18, 2009 eNews about technologies that use algae and bacteria to turn straw, wood chip and cooking oil waste into usable fuel. The US Army is hoping to make the trash that it would normally incinerate into diesel through a catalytic depolymerization process that mimics the way oil is formed under earth's crust.

Anytime the Army goes into a foreign country, it has to make sure its personnel and their vehicles are properly supplied. That means millions of gallons of gas have to be transported to support US forces, often in the middle of hostile territory. According to the US Government Accountability Office, the US Department of Defense supplied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan with an average of 68+ million gallons of fuel every month in 2008. That's a lot of fuel transport convoys – convoys that can get attacked.

Garbage disposal is another issue in foreign lands - because the Army can generate quite a bit of trash. Getting rid of that waste can be a problem because it's expensive to build incinerators that will only be used for a year or two, and burn pits produce smoke that can cause health problems.

The US Army hopes that it can solve both difficulties by taking its garbage and turning it into diesel fuel through a process that uses pressure and heat to break long chain polymers like plastics into short-chain petroleum hydrocarbons - trash to gas.

Old Way #1: Burn It:
The idea of turning waste into energy is not new. The US-based company Covanta operates more than 40 power plants that each take local garbage and burn it in order to heat water that turns turbines that create power. Burning trash for power plants is a useful idea, as long as the plants employ air-pollution controls like Covanta's plants. The leftover ash is then transported to landfills at a fraction of the garbage's original weight.

Old Way #2: Superheat It:
A process called pyrolysis has also been around for awhile. Pyrolysis involves breaking down organic matter by heating it to extremely high temperatures and is used in the chemical industry to produce charcoal or methanol from wood, or to make the PVC plastic used in water pipes, or syngas (synthesis gas) from biomass.

KDV:
The process the Army wants to use is different than either of these. The German company AlphaKat has developed what it calls the KDV (Katalytische Drucklose Verolung) process, a catalytic low pressure depolymerization of waste materials. Covanta has gotten into the action and is working to use AlphaKat's patented catalyst to develop this technology for the Army.

Basically, what is supposed to happen is this; metals and glass and sand are removed from trash, leaving only plastics and other carbon-based materials like food and paper. This waste is dried and chopped up and mixed with used oil. Then, a catalyst containing aluminum, sodium and silicon is added, and the whole mess is dumped into a turbine that spins at 3000 rpm. Inside that spinning turbine all the organic matter is broken down to a pure hydrocarbon diesel that is just like the stuff that gets drilled out of the ground - and at a much faster rate than oil is created naturally. Throw the stuff in the mixer, spin it, and in three minutes you've got oil.

Not only does this process allegedly turn garbage into fuel, but all the gasses and liquids are contained in the specially-designed turbine itself. It's environmentally friendly and supposedly cost-effective.

The question is, does KDV really work? Have they actually taken milk jugs, banana peels, and leftover burger bags and turned them into oil, or have they succeeded only in making diesel out of used cooking oil, which isn't half so big a deal?

The Army Corps of Engineers seems to have some faith in the technology, and so does Covanta. The company wants to do more than just supply the Army; it is planning to develop the technology for plants in the United States and keep more garbage out of landfills by putting it into people's trucks. 

We look forward to future developments.

"Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." - Psalm 16:11

Worship is of key importance to our lives, and we know we need to do more of it.  We can express the worth of God in many ways - in the way we live our lives, in loving people, in obeying Him in adoration, or in singing or dancing.   There is a very special kind of worship, though, in which we have a divine encounter with God Himself. It's coming into His presence, bowing down, falling down and showing Him our complete reverence.

Worship is the place that God promises to "meet with us," because worship is something that is done on the inside - i.e., in our spirit. As Jesus tells us in John 4:23-24, "the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth."  Worshiping the Lord, then, means coming into His presence, adoring, praising and loving Him in the same nature as He - in the spirit.

Most believers know that they have a responsibility to worship, but when asked to define what true worship means or how it's done, they are unable to offer any answers. This is what we want to explore over the next few months. What is true worship? How and when are we to do it? And, what makes worship so important?

Whom Do We Worship?
Man, in general, has an inbuilt need to express his love and gratitude to some deity and that "someone" is who determines his worship.

Believers can worship the Lord with all their heart and soul because they have already invited Him into their lives - their spirits have already been united with and quickened by His Spirit. In other words, believers in Christ can "internally" communicate their love of the Father through the spirit. John 6:63 validates this: "It is the spirit that quickeneth [or makes alive]; the flesh profiteth nothing...."

Nonbelievers, on the other hand, cannot really worship the Lord in this way because their spirits are not yet united with or quickened by God's Spirit. In other words, they cannot "internally" communicate or fellowship directly with the Father. They can only have an external form of worship. Therefore, they cannot personally or intimately know the Father. Listen to John 3:5-6:

"Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the spirit , he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

We often read about being created with a "God-shaped hole" in our hearts. And, it's so true: without an intimate, internal relationship with Christ, nothing on earth will ever fill us.

Though God does not need our worship, He is seeking those who are worshipers. (John 4:23-24) Thus, one of the reasons we worship is to minister and to bless Him. Worship is the time we forget about ourselves, concentrate on Christ and experience His presence.

What Makes Worship so Important?
Worship is important because, as Tozer once said, "...it's the reason Christ came, the reason He was crucified and the reason He rose again." Furthermore, the entire book of Revelation concerns the importance of worship and what God thinks of worship. Listen to Revelation 4:8-11 as an example:

 "The four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things and for Thy pleasure they are and were created."

Other pertinent Scriptures are Revelation 11:16 and 19:4, and there are many other Scriptures in the Word that tell us God is seeking true worshipers. Scriptures like Psalm 95:6-7: "Oh, come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand..." And Psalm 99:5, "Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at His footstool; for He is holy."

Worship is critical because it's the key to God's presence. It's what brings us intimacy with the Father. In other words, worship is a two-way communication. We come into His presence by loving, adoring and exalting Him. He then makes Himself known by communicating His Love and His inspiration (and revelation) back to us. This, of course, results in inexpressible joy for us.

This daily communion is what allows us to endure difficult circumstances. If we are hearing from the Lord and keeping our eyes only on Him, we can withstand anything. Worship, then, is not only the key to intimacy, it's also the key to withstanding trials and problems and restoring the joy of our salvation.

[This article has been excerpted from Nancy Missler's book Private Worship: The Key to Joy.]