The bloke who wrote a book.

Bill and Tom were sitting outside the pub with a couple of beers.

Dog was under the table, watching a bowl of pretzels with professional interest.

Tom said, “You hear about that bloke who started looking into some obscure industrial machine?”

Bill nodded. “Never ends well.”

“Started with a development application. Then he found old reports. Then overseas plants. Then patents. Then emissions tests.”

“Did he eventually work out how the machine worked?”

“More or less.”

“So he stopped?”

“No. He wrote a book.”

Bill lowered his beer.

“About the machine?”

“Ten chapters.”

“Good God.”

“There’s a Chapter Zero too.”

Bill stared at him.

“How many people does he reckon’ll read it?”

Tom thought for a moment.

“Maybe two.”

“In Australia?”

“In the world.”

Bill took a drink.

“Optimist.”

Under the table, Dog quietly hooked a paw around the pretzel bowl.

Tom glanced down.

Dog picked it up in his teeth and headed for the beer garden.

Bill watched him go.

“See. Dog found something interesting and knew when to stop.”

What Scott Learned

I did not set out to write a book about an obscure waste incinerator.

That would have been a strange thing to decide to do on purpose. And while I might be a bit eccentric I don't think I'm quite that odd.

I started with a small question: what exactly is the Xetrov Vortex, and how well has it been demonstrated?

Unfortunately, that question kept producing other questions.

I followed the technology backwards through old vortex-combustion research, Clean6 and Xetrov projects in Britain, permits, patents, test programs and emissions data. Then I followed it forwards into the proposed Glan Devon biosolids-to-fertiliser plant.

Somewhere along the way, what should probably have been a few notes became ten chapters.

The reason is that the questions connect. Understanding those connections is at the heart of understanding the BYVQ biosolids proposal.

As my research progressed, I realised I was no longer investigating a machine.

I was investigating a complete industrial system that does not yet exist in its proposed Glan Devon form.

That's a bit of a problem because Council is not being asked to approve an interesting experiment. It is being asked to make a permanent land-use decision for a High Impact Industry in the Rural Zone.

The Xetrov Story follows that investigation as it unfolded. I have tried to separate what has actually been built from what has been proposed, what has been tested from what has been assumed, and what is known now from what the project intends to discover later.

Do we know enough about the complete process to approve it here?

Apparently, I needed ten chapters to ask it properly.

Read the summary here

(ps. the best bits are in chapters 7, 8 and 10)

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