Super Eco

Photo credit: Beige, Alert, flickr

A slurry is a thick suspension of solids in a liquid. Slurries are useful for moving building materials like macadam or cement. Fly ash, the powdery pollutant residue remaining after the combustion of coal in a generating plant is captured rather than released to the air. It is held in a slurry, then disposed of as solid waste as the slurry water evaporates. This method of handling fly ash has cut down on acid rain but created other environmental concerns. In December, 2008, a 1.1 billion gallon spill of fly ash slurry from a holding pond near the Kingston power plant in Tennessee polluted rivers and left 5.4 million cubic yards of sludge six feet deep on surrounding land.

The longest slurry pipeline in the world was built to carry coal in suspension 273 miles from the Black Mesa mine in Arizona to the Mohave power plant in Nevada. The pipeline was shut down in 2005 when the Mohave plant ceased operations.

Wood pulp slurry is used to make paper. Paper pulp slurry made of discarded paper and water is used to make recycled paper.

Meat slurry (poultry, pork, or beef) is made from pulverized meat and then added to other formed meat products such as chicken nuggets.

Composted manure slurry is often moved in a tank to the field and sprayed as fertilizer. Manure slurry ponds are one of the most environmentally dangerous aspect of factory farming.