Thermal Depolymerization
Developed by Kaukolastan to meet the rising fuel demands with falling fuel reserves, Thermal Depolymerization, better known as TDP, is a postmodern tech that allows the nation to produce low grade fossil fuels from biological waste products, ranging from food to even toxic waste. It also serves to recycle old fossil fuels and plastics into crude form again, allowing up to an 85% reclamation of fuel.
The process works as such:
The feedstock material is first ground into small chunks, and mixed with water if it is especially dry. It is then fed into a reaction chamber where it is heated to around 250°C and subjected to 600 psi (4 MPa) for approximately 15 minutes, after which the pressure is rapidly released to boil off most of the water. The result is a mix of crude hydrocarbons and solid minerals, which are separated out. The hydrocarbons are sent to a second-stage reactor where they are heated to 500°C, further breaking down the longer chains, and the resulting petroleum is then distilled in a manner similar to conventional oil refining.
Working with turkey offal as the feedstock, the process proved to have yield efficiencies of approximately 85%; in other words, the energy required to process materials could be supplied by using 15% of the petroleum output. Alternately, one could consider the energy efficiency of the process to be 560% (85 units of energy produced for 15 units of energy consumed). Higher efficiencies may be possible with drier and more carbon-rich feedstocks, such as waste plastic.
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Now, in real life, oil companies are paying the designers NOT to follow on this test, but in NS, Kaukolastan uses this tech to produce oil like an OPEC nation, though it possesses no internal reserve. It is good to remember, though, that TDP only produces low grade fuels from biological waste, and while incredibly efficient at oil reclamation and plastics production, is not quite a "free oil now" technology.
These industries are more massive than their conventional drilling/refining compatriots, and the process is risky, as it involves high temperatures and pressures on fossil fuels. This is not cheap process, so the price of oil never did bottom out as expected, but it did drop significantly in Kaukolastan, and has allowed the nation to continue to export oil, as well as lease the technology. However, TDP facilities, with their high polution and symbolism of a never-ending fossil fuel age, have become a prime target of environmental protest.
