SeattleGameboy's Journal: Oil from Anything (including turkey guts)

Fascinating article from Discover.com where Brian Appel, chairman and CEO of Changing World Technologies claims that his plant can make oil (#2 heating oil) from any carbon based garbage. "If a 175-pound man fell into one end, he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water." - Why didn't robots in Matrix think of this?

I am having a very hard time believing this article since if it was this easy to make oil, somebody would have done it a long time ago (especially not requiring more energy than what you get). But the article says the plant is almost ready for prime time. Does any /.'er have any insight?