Comments on: Plasma Arc Waste Disposal Taking Off

By: Brent

Brent — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:01:42 +0000

I'm not sure about "most of these plants", but the Plasco ones that this blog post is about closely monitor the NOx emissions, and they are well below regulations. They've reported the installation of new cat converters to reduce those emissions even further. It's hard to believe that the alternative of creating mountains of garbage, through which rainwater is filtered before going into the ground, is better.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:41:11 +0000

Check out the NOx output of most of these plants, unfortunately in theory they work, but they can have devistating effects on the local environment. If the syngas has to be burned to create energy, then that is incineration and NOx is always a by-product when something combusts, it’s basic physics. Plasmagasification is just incineration in disguise. Nanoparticles of heavy metals are also released into the atmosphere. Not a good alternative…yet.

By: Small Scale Trash to Energy | Brent Kearney

Small Scale Trash to Energy | Brent Kearney — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:36:32 +0000

[...] Last year I wrote about Plasma Arc Waste Disposal, which is a similar concept, only applied on a larger scale, for cities of a million people or more. I asked Plasco whether they plan on scaling down the technology to handle smaller municipalities, and as I recall, their reply was essentially: not for awhile. [...]

By: Brent

Brent — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:52:58 +0000

I just checked the Plasco Energy site to see if there was any interesting news, and found that they have posted some videos of their own. Here's one:

By: Brent

Brent — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:37:38 +0000

This video from a company called Startech appeared on YouTube. Although it's corporate marketing zombie material at it's worst, and the video quality is terrible, it may provide a good introduction to plasma arc waste disposal: