The Power of Plasma | Green Energy News

January 15, 2012 – Vol.16 No.44

THE POWER OF PLASMA.
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

The final scene of the still popular 1985 sci-fi film “Back to the Future” has mad-scientist Doc Brown landing his now flyable Delorean time machine onto the McFly’s driveway as Marty and girlfriend Jennifer are about to leave.

Doc says something like, “Marty– you’ve gotta come back with me – back to the future!”

“Doc”, says Marty, “I’ve got Jennifer here. I was just gonna try out my new wheels.”

“Well, bring her along – this concerns her too!”

“What do you mean? What happens? Does something happen to us? Do we turn out to be (jerks) or something?”

“No, it’s your kids!”

Jennifer blushes and smiles, “Oh!”

As he gets back into the Delorean, Doc Brown finishes off a soft drink, crushes the can and drops it into the “Mr. Fusion” generator on the time-traveling car. The empty can is now fuel it seems. Off they fly to change the future powered by an aluminum can.

Great fun. Pretty far fetched stuff. We’re a long way from time traveling and fusion power let alone fusion power generators small enough to power a flying car. But using waste directly for energy is possible in many ways, today. One technology is as equally futuristic-sounding as fusion: Plasma.

Plasma has many definitions including being part of our blood to a type of television screen to a kind of energized air that makes up the flash and boom of bolt of lightning or a spark of electricity. It’s this last one that’s related to turning waste to energy and what this story is about.

We think of sparks of electricity, or a flow of continuous sparks, an arc, as being just that, a lot of electricity flying free and rightfully something to be wary of. But sparks and arcs can also be a source of intense heat and capable of vaporizing most materials. Though difficult to measure, and the results of tests vary, arcs can be be up to 53,000 degrees F depending on whose document you read. Temperature drops rapidly the farther you move away from the flash of light.

The high heat an electric arc allows for arc welding, the melting of metals to join them. Somewhere along the advancement of arc welding it was discovered that blowing a stream of air across the arc of an arc welder would create a kind of flame. That flame, or cooked air, would be used for welding, or more so, the cutting of metals like steel. That electric “flame” is a kind of plasma.

Plasma cutting has evolved as well. Plasma torches can now be used in computer controlled equipment to cut metals with extreme accuracy. In many shops plasma cutting has replaced other types of metal cutting such as saws. Plasma cutters have become so inexpensive that hand-held versions are available for hobbyists.

The next evolution of plasma cutting probably came as a playful experiment. Somewhere, in some shop, somebody probably experimented using hand-held plasma torch on something other than steel, such as a banana peel or a scrap of plastic. The result? Nearly instant annihilation. Great fun, but a new industry was born: plasma waste disposal, a high temperature way to get rid of just about anything by turning it back into its basic elements. Plasma can convert both the banana skin and the piece of plastic into carbon, hydrogen and oxygen along with some trace elements.

Today, there are a number of plasma waste disposal operations around the world. (I don’t think anyone has ever counted them all.) Some of them make use of the residual gas of plasma incineration which breaks down hydrocarbon waste to a gaseous fuel to power other equipment. The fuel is called a synthesis gas, or syngas, and is made of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

Mostly these are large scale operations designed to process lots of waste and use very high plasma temperatures. But plasma waste technology is evolving as well. One company, W2 Energy, is developing a lower temperature device it calls the NT (non-thermal) Plasmatron Gasifier. The company claims operating at a lower temperature the unit can make more synthesis gas from hydrocarbon feed stocks, like and banana and the plastic, than the higher temperature units. Making more gas, means more gas that can be sold or used as fuel in the plant operation itself for power generation.

W2 is going a little further with its technology as well and is installing a mobile NT Plasmatron in a car, a low-speed, partially solar-powered vehicle it calls the Solar Bug.

W2 is working towards full commercialization of the Solar Bug. "Our target is to release this to market by 3rd quarter of 2012," reports W2 Energy's CEO, Mr. Michael McLaren.

A company press release says, “W2 Energy has been working in the background, bringing the core technology up to a commercial level. W2 Energy has invested in the technology in order to integrate the company's state of the art rotary engine and on-board plasma system.

“The new design will incorporate our multi-fuel rotary engine, a mobile NT plasmatron which converts various feedstocks such as vegetable oil, biodiesel or other liquid fuels to syngas, which will run the rotary engine and charge the battery system. This technology will extend the range of the vehicle. Additionally, the Solar Bug will incorporate two 300 watt solar panels and a state of the art energy storage system.”

Aside from the Plasmatron, W2 is also developing the SteamRay, a high-efficiency rotary engine that converts either steam or syngas into electricity (and will be used in the SolarBug.) Other projects are the WaterHelix which converts river or offshore water flows into hydraulic pressure; the W2 Small Energy Generating System (SEGS) which converts that hydraulic pressure into electricity; the MultiFuel Gas-to-Liquid Reactor which converts syngas into either Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) or an approximate 40/35/25 blend of ULSD, gasoline, and JP8 jet fuel and the SunFilter Algae Reactor sequesters carbon dioxide and other pollution gases and grows algae which feed on those gases and particulates.

Plasma, though a reasonably mature technology when utilized in other technology sectors, seems underutilized as an alternative energy technology. While in green energy the technology focus right now is in solar and batteries, converting waste to energy by way of plasma could provide a 24/7 source of renewable energy for homes and perhaps in the future transportation too.

Links:

W2 Energy
http://w2energy.com

Solar Bug
http://w2energy.com/freedrive