Incinerating Garbage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy

Landfill of garbage is also highly undesirable.

Given the options:

• Landfill
• Recycling of what can be, followed by incineration of what can't to produce heat and power to use, thereby reducing dependence on primary fuels for this function

Which is "less worse"?

Have you seen this CR4 blog entry?

There is a company in Ottawa Canada that has developed a process whereby garbage is superheated to a plasma state which supposedly reduces the gas and particulate emissions from the process. I will post a link to website, later

You're right, unclefastguy.

The company is called Plasco Energy Group (http://www.plascoenergygroup.com/). They claim the emissions from the gasification process is so clean they don't need an emissions stack connected to the building. Best of all, the heat developed from the system is captured to produce electricity. Some is used to produce the plasma arc but the rest is sold back into the grid.

I'd be interested to hear what the great minds on this forum think about this technology.

Thanks Oliver,

That's the company I was thinking of.

This technology looks very promising and

they have two "reactors" already running.

One in Ottawa and another in Spain.

Why isn't the Provincial and Federal governments

more involved with this company?

I agree completely with your comment about the federal and provincial governments getting involved. I understand the Alberta government has been approached but there are a hand full of individuals who are stalling progress. This is odd given that landfills in that province will be outlawed soon.

Also, I believe there are 2 facilities operating in Spain. They've been there for several years and there is still no evidence of any problems with the technology.

Waste Management /Rust Engineering designed, built & financed municipal incinerating plants. These multi million dollar facilities would not only free up landfills but would generate megawatts of clean power and pay for themselves in two years. They had to eventually be shut down because someone said the ashes had to go to a hazardous landfill. Way to go!

Can someone recap on this for me please? Completely clean? Is this high temperature process splitting atoms? If it is burning mixed waste with anything-you-can-think-of going in to it (because that's pretty much what waste today consists of), what is happening to the undesireable atoms (e.g. fluorocarbons and metals) that the waste must by nature contain?

Sorry, just for record the above was me, forgot something, can't think what it was??

I certainly don't profess to know all about this technology but I understand that the plasma arc breaks down all feed stock into its component elements. Chemicals can be introduced to bind with some elements to produce useful products.

Hydrogen is naturally separated at these temperatures so their process can make use of that as well - if you're interested in fuel cell technology.

The leftover slag is completely inert and can be very useful for road building or in the construction trade. I've seen and held the stuff and it's quite nice - black carbon fused together. I believe the facility in Spain used massive sheets of the slag to cover its building. Kind of like a smoked glass look.

Again, I'm no expert on this topic (which is why I'd like to hear what others have to say about the technology). The website I posted earlier provides some great info and leaves me wondering why governments are not jumping on board.