The Solution

Plasma Arc Technologies & Cool Plasma Gasification

 

Plasma gasification is proven technology that is advancing commercially. It is rapidly emerging as the best response to many of the earth’s increasing waste disposal and energy problems of the 21st century.

Current technologies using plasma gasification can cleanly convert almost any waste material into usable resources such as electricity, synthetic fuels, and valuable commercial products. The high gasification temperatures create the plasma state sometimes referred to as the "fourth state of matter," following gas, liquid, and solid. In nature, well-known examples of plasma are lightning and the sun.

The centerpieces of the plasma gasification technology system are the plasma torches which create intensely high temperatures, to create an ionized gas stream or plasma. Plasma torches and heating technology were first used by NASA in the early 1960's to test the durability of its space vehicle's heat shields for re-entry into our atmosphere. Their successful commercial application has led them to be considered for use in various industries.

Although plasma gasification is not a new technology, waste-to-energy is a recent innovative application that has emerged within the past decade because of the technology’s superior ability to:

  • Achieve sustainability goals, specifically 100% conversion of municipal solid waste (MSW) into usable/saleable by-products, e.g., energy, alternative fuels, metal recovery, glass, and construction materials.
  • Minimize air emissions compared to other WTE technologies and manage the release of greenhouse gases.
  • Eliminate the need for landfill disposal of municipal solid waste and its related environmental concerns

Conversion From Waste to Energy

Applications

 

Waste-to-energy (WTE): Recyclable consumer products (plastics, eWaste, used tires), municipal solid waste (MSW), biomass, sludge, other non-hazardous waste.

Hazardous waste disposal: Chemical wastes (e.g., PCBs), chemical warfare agents, radioactive wastes, inorganic wastes (e.g., ash, asbestos), medical wastes, spent batteries

In situ (in place) Vitrification: Contaminated soil/sediment remediation, landfill remediation

Geotechnical applications: Soil stabilization

 

 

Technology

Temperature

Conversion to Energy

Plasma Gasification

7,200 – 12,600° F

816 kWh/ton of MSW

Conventional Gasification

1,400 – 2,800° F

685 kWh/ton of MSW

Pyrolysis Gasification

1,400 – 2,800° F

685 kWh/ton of MSW

Pyrolysis

1,200 – 2,200° F

571 kWh/ton of MSW

Mass Burn (Incineration)

1,000 – 2, 200° F

544 kWh/ton of MSW

 

•      The plasma FILL reactor reduces material input up to 95%, and all of the by-products of the reaction are commercial. Potentially, all waste delivered into the reactor is eliminated. This fact transforms nearly every notion of waste management. Landfills are no longer "landlocked".

•      The most significant effect is the transformation of the landfill into the waste depot.

•      In a plant where waste is transformed into other commercial products your biggest asset is the ability to continue to attract agents who will deliver waste.

•      There are 2 major costs that a plasma FILL plant will recover:

•      Opportunity cost based on market mispricing

•      The lost value once the landfill is capped.

•      Virtually every other physical asset goes up in value as supply goes down. It's hard to imagine for instance that the cost of oil will remain constant as it's known supply is diminished. The same is true with buildable land.

•      By the laws of economics landfill managers should charge ever-increasing costs to use their landfill as the lifetime of the facility comes to an end. Of course that is not the case. All of the revenue that is lost as a result of permitting and municipal economics is suddenly regained with the introduction of the plasma FILL.

•      The plasma FILL reactor enables landfill owners to recover these lost costs by accelerating the amount of waste they can accept.

•      Secondly, the value of your assets are diminishing with the arrival of each truck. The book value of your assets are diminished by exactly the tipping fee of each arrival.

•      If only 5% of your landfill is used for each truck that multiplies the value of each arrival by 20 times. If you use the infinite FILL service, where all commercial by-products are removed from your facility, the value of each arriving truck is mathematically infinite.

•      This is a complete transformation in the valuation of your business.

•      These are new methods applied to an old technology, and as such, the specific valuation parameters for this revaluation are not yet available. However, it is virtually certain that the transformation of landfill to waste depot has multiple gains for the asset owners in cost and revenue flow, the ability to finance existing operations and sustainable book asset value.

•      It is unlikely that any other single capital improvement will have as dramatic an effect on your assets as the introduction of plasma FILL reactors.

•       Controlling gas, leachate and runoff

•      Despite our best efforts, most landfills do not operate as closed systems. Materials go into a landfill; a variety of physical, biological, and chemical reactions occur; and then a group of different materials comes out.

•     The easiest way to control gas, leachate and runoff is to eliminate the introduction of solid waste into your landfill. Prior to the introduction of the plasma FILL reactor this could only be achieved through incineration. The plasma FILL reactor enables solid waste agencies to control the amount of waste entering the landfill

•      control growth in landfill gases

•      control growth of leachate

•      A 1-ton block of trash inside a typical landfill might measure 3.5 feet cubed. If the organic material in that ton of trash was allowed to decompose completely, it would generate approximately 12,000 cubic feet of gas. The gas would consist of approximately 50% methane and 50% carbon dioxide, with small quantities of other constituents, depending on what we started with.

•      According to Brian Guzzone, with the EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP), landfill-gas-to-energy (LFGTE) projects in the US delivered 75 billion cubic feet of gas in 2006. Another 250 billion cubic feet per year may be available from other potential LFGTE projects that have yet to be developed. That's enough gas to cover the state of Massachusetts to a depth of nearly 6,000 feet.

•      Most landfills generate leachate. Of course, the amount can vary dramatically, depending on many factors, of which climate is the most significant. Landfills in very arid climates may generate no detectable leachate under normal conditions, while those in wet climates may generate millions of gallons per year.