Add Plasma Converted Waste to the Renewables List

August 17, 2008 – Vol.13 No.22

ADD PLASMA CONVERTED WASTE TO THE RENEWABLES LIST.

It’s a scary world out there. Increasingly, nations are becoming more dependent on resources from other nations that are not exactly friendly trading partners. Think Russia the Bear. For economic security reasons alone, nations reliant on imported energy should look inward to best utilize existing resources.

Being more clever than it has been in recent decades, the US could swiftly move away from imported energy, as well as cut greenhouse gas emissions. If the country showed its American Ingenuity once again, the rest of the world would follow towards their own energy independence.

Looking at renewable energy alone, the US has fantastic wind and solar resources. It now generates more electricity from the wind than anyone, including Germany with its greater installed capacity. (US winds are stronger, more frequent and reliable.)

Solar is ready to go big time too. Eight hundred megawatts of photovoltaic power set for construction in California is an eye-opener for energy watchers.

The US also has another ever-growing, yet mostly ignored energy resource: The nation that prides itself in consumption also has mountains of trash that rise higher by the day.

To some extent we already use trash for energy, Landfill gas operations are built here and there to tap methane gas from underground decaying garbage. There are also some waste-to-energy, trash burning operations, but these are often not considered particularly clean and green sources of energy.

There is another way to convert trash and other waste products (including toxic stuff) to energy, It’s a bit of ingenuity with a Star Trek-like name, a Plasma Converter.

The Plasma Converter uses extraordinarily high temperature heat to dissociate molecules of any kind. The technology is basically a plasma torch, like that used to cut metals, but which contains its heat within a chamber.

In operation a relatively high voltage and high current electricity is passed between two electrodes – spaced apart – creating an electrical arc. Inert gas under pressure is passed through the arc into a sealed container of waste material. The arc with the gas (air for instance) flowing across it is the plasma.

Temperature in the container can reach 25,000 - 30,000 F (14,000 -17000 C) near the arc itself. A few feet away things cool off a bit to about 7,200 F (4000 C).

At these temperatures most types of waste are broken into basic elemental components in a gaseous form, and complex molecules are atomized - separated into individual atoms. The end product is a synthesis gas, mostly hydrogen, and a glasslike solid. The synthesis gas can be cleaned up, hydrogen separated and used as fuel for combustion engines or fuel cells. The solid can be used as a building material.

Whether or a facility to convert trash to usable fuel uses more energy than it creates may be a concern, but solar photovoltaic power, for instance, used more energy than it made until the technology improved. Plasma conversion technology is still developing.

There are plasma converter projects underway and the technology is available for interested buyers.

In the UK a 100,000 ton per year plasma waste converter facility is being built that will provide enough power for 10,000 homes and enough heat for about 700. And, importantly, the facility being built by Advanced Plasma Power will have a negative carbon footprint.

The technology by Advanced Plasma Power seems similar to that being marketed by StarTech Environmental. That company, which has built some plasma waste converter facilities, has taken delivery of an engine designed to operate on hydrogen as proof that its Plasma Converted Gas (that synthesis gas) can be cleaned up enough to use as fuel to generate electricity. The company wants the engine and converter in one marketable package.

There are a few other plasma waste conversion projects being built: One in St. Lucie County, Florida by GeoPlasma. Another in Tallahassee, Florida by Green Power Systems and one in Hirwaun, Wales using technology from the Plasco Energy Group.

In times of energy insecurity that waste shouldn’t be going to waste, it should be a regular renewable source of energy: Mountains of waste turned to gas and salable rubble.

Links:

StarTech Environmental
http://www.startech.net

Advanced Plasma Power
http://www.advancedplasmapower.com

Green Power Systems
http://www.greenpowersystems.com

Plasco Energy Group
http://www.plascoenergygroup.com

Pyrogenisis
http://pyrogenesis.com
(photo credit, plasma equipment manufacturer)

--- Hydrogen Engine Center (HEC) and Startech Environmental in Strategic Alliance.