FIELD EXPEDIENT GARBAGE


toFUEL


Trash-to-fuel generator, battle-tested in Iraq, shows long-term potential


by Mr. Don Kennedy T 138


he year was 2008, and with the ongoing war, Iraq was a dangerous landscape for Soldiers on the ground, especially convoys traveling to and


from base camps. Soldiers transporting fuel frequently encountered roadside bombs and enemy ambushes. Those risks can now be reduced with the Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery (TGER) prototype.


“If you’re a forward operating base, you don’t want a local contractor coming in to haul your gar- bage out, because you don’t know if they’re good guys or bad guys. You also don’t want to be haul- ing fuel in, because those convoys are targets and risk the lives of Soldiers and contractors,” said Dr. James J. Valdes, the Army’s scientific advisor for biotechnology at the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemi- cal Biological Center (ECBC), Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), MD. ECBC is the Army’s princi- pal research and development center for chemical


and biological defense technology, engineering and field operations.


For 90 days, Camp Victory in Baghdad was home to the first two prototypes of TGER, deployable machines tactically designed to convert military field waste into immediately usable energy for for- ward operating bases (FOBs). Te trailer-mounted biorefinery system uses hybrid technology to sup- port a 550-person unit that generates about 2,500 pounds of trash per day; it converts about 2,000 pounds of that garbage—paper, plastic, packaging and food waste—into electricity using a standard 60-kilowatt diesel generator.


THE PRESSING PROBLEM At the height of the war in Iraq, eight incinera- tors were operating around the clock to burn waste generated by Camp Victory, according to Valdes. Nearly 12,000 gallons of fuel per day were needed to power the incinerators.


Army AL&T Magazine


April–June 2013


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