I saw a documentary about this very idea. Some team rigged their truck to take in biodegradeable scrap food and converted that to a gas that powered their vehicle through central and south america. Great idea but, not usre that it would be workeable in a big city.

I'm not sure if hugging a tree is good for the tree...

Look at
http://www.ideachamp...cording_to_bus.shtml
You're not the first to come up with this idea

Quote: "one idea i had was a trash can that digested biodegradable food and recyclables for the natural gasses emitted. To use the gas's to produce power in a simple manageable may.

or solar panels redesigned in a cheaper and more efficient way to power a house or a electric car that recharges itself no plug in and instant"

Response: As you are aware Methane Gas Recovery and its conversion to Energy (Electricity) is approved by the UN Carbon Trading Program, and eligible for Carbon Credits.

The Technology is "off the shelf" and eligible for GRANTS in Countries which have signed the Kyoto Protocol.

I feel that there is a GREAT Opportunity here to Crowdsourse a "Better Mousetrap" This industry is in its infancy. The opportunity to Generate Carbon Credits should assure a BOTTOM Line which is always in the BLACK.

For example a small 18Mw Plant should generate around 200,000 tons of Carbon Offsets per annum. Current Market is between EU15 and EU20 per Ton, as this process reduces TWO Gasses. Methane and CO2.

I also know of a waste to energy company that was able to get the local government to guarantee (unconditionally) a portion of the contract for this waste management company (which was providing huge discounts to the municipality) to take their waste and then the municipality was in contract for the purchase of the energy. With an absolute unconditional guarantee contract like that... financing is easy and relatively painless (I have a great source). Getting the contract--Not so painless.
But waste to energy is the future of energy (remember Doc from Back to the Future). I would love to crowdsource this!!!

thanks for the tips guys , and wow on the trash idea all ready being done that's fantastic! the idea of the trash and the co2&methane emissions was to improve the use of trash, other then it sitting there in the land fields. also "DTINGG" back to the future was a big influence on this idea LOL.

Firstly, well done for being interested in this and for applying thought to this area. I'm with you in thinking that we NEED more development of these technologies, and letting the crowds loose on them may be what's required to drive that. A couple of comments on your actual ideas though:

The recycling of waste into energy is an existing technology, as you've seen. There are however reasons why it isn't more widely adopted. By the time one takes into account transport of the waste, sorting, heating, etc the energy efficiency of the process is actually quite low. Yes you can get more energy out than you put in, but not a lot. That's perhaps where your development work would come in.

Even then however, you'll find that the amount of available (and suitable, when you've removed all of the stuff that really shouldn't be burned) waste is not great. Yes it's suitable for a bunch of guys to drive their truck by collecting waste wherever they can find it but can it make a significant dent in a city's energy use? I don't know, but I'd love for you to prove me wrong here.

On to solar panels. The wikipedia article on solar cells is very good and you can learn a lot about the current state of the art with regard to efficiency. To summarise though, current silicon devices peak at just under 30% efficiency (though the simplest/cheapest cells are only at 7-9 %); GaAs devices can reach maybe 37 % but are a less-developed technology. Carbon nanotube-based devices could go as far as 45 % but more work is needed there.

At first glance, these numbers appear quite low; in comparison with other technologies (and bearing in mind that the product is usable energy, without more conversion steps needed) they're not so bad. What is certain though is that pushing them higher will be difficult. The current limits are basic material properties - relatively high intrinsic defect densities in the semiconductors used, band gaps corresponding to only a single wavelength, etc. Huge amounts of research funding are being poured into this.

More important than efficiency though is cost. Due to the need for ultra-pure silicon, current cells are just too expensive. This one can I think only be solved by introducing other materials. Again, it's being researched.

I hope some of this is useful - good luck with anything you do manage to come up with!

In response to Phillip H: Quote"The recycling of waste into energy is an existing technology, as you've seen. There are however reasons why it isn't more widely adopted. By the time one takes into account transport of the waste, sorting, heating, etc the energy efficiency of the process is actually quite low. Yes you can get more energy out than you put in, but not a lot. That's perhaps where your development work would come in."

Response: Existing technologies contradict your above analysis.

8 tons of MSW (in the UK/USA) will produce around 5 tons of pelletized fuel with a calorific value of around 5,500 Kj. Using a Gasification process this 5 tons of pellets will generate sufficient heat and Gasses' to drive a 6MW steam turbine, with an EBITA of around US$9 million P. A. The addition of Carbon Credits (not currently applicable in the USA)actually make this a very profitable business.

Up until now the main reason that this type of technology was not widespread was (a)because it was cheaper to Landfill Waste, thereby polluting the enviroment. (b) Up until recently, this type of technology, similar to most Incineration technologies did not meet emission standards. Some currently existing technologies meet and exceed worldwide emission standards.

The recuperation of Methane Gas from Landfill sites is approved by the UN Kyoto Protocol and eligible for Carbon Credits. Once suplhates and other pollutants have been removed methane gas is an excellent fuel.
Some of the original Ford Automobiles ran on Gas in the early 1900s, it should be easy enough to adapt this technology to the 21st Century?

I stand corrected! Thanks CharonV.

I disagree with methane being an excellent fuel though. It may have an (volumetric) energy density over three times that of hydrogen but it still carries the same problems with handling, storage and transport. There are considerable issues involved with transporting large volumes of explosive gas in cars the are likely to crash!

You're kidding, right? How about carrying a pig around and using it's manure?

Good idea, going to cost a pretty penny in R&D and also deployment. People will bitch about gas prices to the end of time, but will still want that gas guzzler power & image. There's a perceived image of electric/bio/alt fuels that they are not as good as a gas powered car. Difficult mindset to overcome.

just set up a fund similar to the X-prize

http://www.space.com..._success_041004.html