Why aren't Plasma Gasification Furnaces more abundant?

Several years ago, I read about a great new technology while on a long boring airplane ride. It was called Plasma Gasification. In a nutshell, it uses a plasma torch to disintegrate all kinds of waste down to the molecular and/or atomic level. This releases all kinds of raw materials as well as something called Syngas which can be burned or stored like LNG.

The great thing about this technology is that it can take in any trash and convert it to a usable form of fuel. After full startup of the furnace has been acheived, it has a net energy output (counting the potential of stored fuel created) which allows it to be a real viable source of power for the grid. In addition, you get a good deal of reusable raw materials out of it.

So that was about 6 years ago. I look now and only 6 or so furnaces are online -- many of them overseas. What is stopping this technology from taking off? Why don't we have one on each and every landfill in the US?

For more detailed information, here are some links:
wiki article.
more on plasma gasification technology/
Recovered Energy

I read about this process a few years ago too and I was like wow I can't wait till they do that because its amazing and could solve so many problems.
The only thing I can think of is that they ran into a technical snafu or a financial one. I'm also wondering if big oil,etc don't want this to come about.

reply to post by FunSized


Well, it might be a financial one. I know that there are some in operation, so I can be relatively encouraged that it is not a technical issue. Might be a regulatory one, though. Maybe there are technical hurdles in the local zoning regulations that prohibit the incineration of trash?