Plasma arc waste disposal, or plasma gasification, is a technology that converts garbage into electricity and other usable resources. It does this, essentially, by disintegrating garbage with super-hot plasma arcs, creating gases that turn turbines to generate electricity.
I wrote about the Trash Gas project in Florida two years ago, and it seems that the story has resurfaced in the mainstream media today. It looks like the Florida project has been scaled down to half of the reported capacity in 2006. Back then, the plant was to eliminate 3000 tons of trash per day, and send 120MW back to the grid. Today’s report is 1500 tons and 60MW, to be ready by 2011.
Meanwhile, here in Canada, Plasco Energy Group setup a somewhat similar plant that has been successfully operating in Ottawa for about a year, and has projects underway for several other cities, including Vancouver and Los Angeles. Several plasma plants are operating in Japan, according to the Wikipedia article on the technology. The article mentions that a couple of plants in Europe were shut down over emissions problems.
The emissions produced by the plant in Ottawa are closely monitored, and so far, the results are quite good. It is my hope that Plasco is successful in their Vancouver and L.A. bids, and that this technology proliferates. As time goes on we will figure out better ways of capturing or converting the emissions. Anyone who has seen the current method of waste disposal — landfill sites — should be on-board with plasma arc plants as well. Dumping garbage on the ground isn’t really “disposal” at all, it’s just moving it to a different place, where some of it rots and produces greenhouse gasses and a vile stench. The rest of it, plastics and the like, simply sit there, polluting the ground water and poisoning wildlife. Plasma gasification isn’t perfect, yet, but it’s a huge step in the right direction.
Resources produced per ton of waste by the Plasco Conversion System
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