Energy From Garbage

A county in Florida, USA, plans to build a new power plant that runs off trash. The system uses plasma arcs to vaporize landfill garbage, resulting in a combustible gas which is then used to drive turbines. While this is not the first plant of its kind, if built it will be the largest in the world with a power output of 120 megawatts.



It remains to be seen how effective this ambitious plan will be. Other power plants of this type elsewhere in the world have failed due to unacceptable emissions output. However, well funded American industrial will is a force not to be underestimated.

If this power plant is a success, others could and most likely would be built across the nation. With all the uncertainty in the world today regarding energy stocks, I am optimistic that the designers will make this technology succeed.

Related News Links:
www.planetark.com
www.greenaction.org
www.wte.org

The fact that the company itself is covering the entire cost of all the bonds, the proven reliability of the technology they will be using, to me shows these people know exactly what they are talking about. St luchie county is only a couple hours away from me, perhaps I will visit the site once it is operational.

They state it will take them twenty years to recover their investment, I sure want to believe they know what they are doing.

Really interesting article nice find apc.

I agree with dyepes they obviously believe in this technology. I would think the potential for business growth just from a positve PR standpoint is hard to project but in a best case scenario I would think a 20 year recoupment mark is on outside of the bubble.

They have to feel that this sort of thing is not only a smart thing in terms of the environment but also an effective business model, business is business after all.

Very interesting.

Spiderj

Actually there is alot of this type of stuff that will come online now that the cost of oil is so high. They are now cost effective

Biomass is one that has huge potential. Every city could collect yard clipping and trimmings and basically make a huge compost pile.

Burning tires: Anybody ever see a tire burn? Its pretty impressive. If you do so under the right conditions with the perfect amount of o2 and pollution controlls you can generate alot of heat with almost no pollution. Plus you actually get some oil and steel out of the deal that can be reused.

Ah, Plasma Arc Reformation. I was wondering when someone was going to build a large plant based on this technology.

What I want to know is how come not much research in tabletop systems is going on.

I've seen demonstrations of a device reforming distilled water with Carbon-rich feedstock and run a modified diesel lawnmower for hours. It was a bulky setup, but with miniturization, you could quite potentally just pour water, only occasionally replacing the carbon feedstock and battery.

[edit on 11-9-2006 by sardion2000]

Yes I did find this pretty interesting. I had heard a long time ago about landfills in Japan that used a plasma torch at the base to liquify the garbage and help compact it. But this was the first I had encountered of actually generating electricity. 120megawatts! That's like... 0.12 jiggawatts! I know what you're thinking... What the Hell is a jiggawatt?!

Burning tires: Anybody ever see a tire burn? Its pretty impressive. If you do so under the right conditions with the perfect amount of o2 and pollution controlls you can generate alot of heat with almost no pollution. Plus you actually get some oil and steel out of the deal that can be reused.

Burning them isn't necessary. You just need grind them up, mix them in a liquid solution(sludge is a good bet, we got lots of that in the sewer system), and use a plasma arc reformer to re-jiggle the atoms around.

I wonder if Plasma directed molecular assembly is possible?