After Gutenberg

A gas (air) is ionized by passing high voltage between two electrodes, converting the gas into plasma. The energy of the plasma arc is so powerful; it breaks down matter into it’s component parts by stripping the valence electrons from the atoms, and tearing apart the molecular bonds. The plasma arc is intensely hot (as high as 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit). The plasma plume can render any organic material into elemental components.

Treehugger relays a Popular Science story about companies, like Startech that are blasting trash to Syngas.

“What happened to smithereens? Ah, the kids these days…”

Companies employing PAG (Plasma Arc Gasification) use a technology developed in the 1990s at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. MIT researchers learned that when the charcoal or char passes through arcs of plasma, it converted to a gas stream consisting primarily of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

Basically, you put tons of trash in one end of a plasma converter, and a superheated plasma arc obliterates the trash into its molecular components. The process is called “plasma gasification”. There are two byproducts: one is a “Syngas” composed mostly of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which can be converted into fuel. The other is molten glass that can be sold for use in household tiles or road asphalt. Amazingly, plasma converters produce enough energy to power themselves, and actually produce an excess of energy that can be sold to the grid. Still, some environmental scientists have warned that the residual substances may contain toxic heavy metals.

The Treehugger summary is a good thumbnail description since it acknowledges the environmental concerns that communities have, where such development is underway.

Worthy of note, the gasification of biomass can occur at lower temperatures than obtained with a plasma arc. An advantage to any of these thermochemical technologies, whether PAG or lower temperature gasification (in either one or two steps) is the ability to process large quantities of a wide variety of feedstock. With proper attention to air quality standards, PAG would seem appropriate for municipal solid waste because such a heterogeneous feedstock can produce a variety of potentially harmful emissions.

StarTech illustration of a Plasma Converter that reportedly goes for $250 million per unit. Startech is installing six units for U.S. Energy on Long Island. Joseph Longo, Startech founder and CEO, promises to make a relic of the landfill by turning trash into clean energy.

City planners are making note of the technology because of landfill costs. Thermochemical technologies can have a greater effect on landfill reduction. Other indirect effects include eliminating diesel truck trips and reducing landfill gas emission.

Electricity and fuel for operations, plus daily disposing of tonnes of municipal solid waste seems to be a good business decision. Thermochemical technologies can also produce a larger variety of products, which can displace the need for non-renewable traditional sources of energy and fuels.

The company U.S. Energy (a partnership between three ex-trash executives) is in the process of buying 6 of Startech’s converters to create in a gasification plant in Long Island. Michael Nuzzi (one of the partners) explains, “New York City is already paying an astronomical $90 a ton to get rid of its trash. According to Startech, a few 2,000-ton-per-day plasma-gasification plants could do it for $36. Sell the syngas and surplus electricity, and you’d actually net $15 a ton.

Unfortunately, while the economic analysis is quite favorable, the environmental analysis is less so in terms of aggregate increases in greenhouse gases or toxins.