The future of waste disposal

mickeydevine

http://www.plascoenergygroup.com/

Plasco has developed a system using plasma torches to break waste down to their elemental parts, making useful products i.e hydrogen etc. Currently it costs $90 to dispose of 1 ton of waste (New York), where this system actually turns a $15 PROFIT per ton of waste. Dirty nappies and all. Maybe instead of building vast incinerators we could invest in new ideas like this. Just in case your interested the process is called plasmagasification.

Cookie_Monster

Thats looks feckin cool

robtri

Now there's something that impresses me...... and a working example....

mumhaabu

:eek: Sounds like that yoke Doc Martin used to power the steam locomotive time machine in Back to the Future III, Eventually everything that happens in Hollywood becomes reality... almost

vaalea

thanks for posting. a great alternative to incinerating or landfilling it.

Daegerty

Particle sorting. Tis stuff of the future alright

Even old landfill sites may someday be re-mined for metals if one had a good particle sorting machine

vaalea

Daegerty wrote: »

Particle sorting. Tis stuff of the future alright

Even old landfill sites may someday be re-mined for metals if one had a good particle sorting machine

I asked one of the guys from Plasco who works at their `prototype`facility in Canada, and right now they wouldn`t think of mining landfills and processing them... i think it`s a great idea. apparently one of the downsides of these facilities is that the city needs to guarantee them a certain amount of waste consistantly to profit from the investment of building, and that goes against trying to get everyone to reduce-reuse-recycle-rethink their waste... so reluctance there... and mining landfills would be perfect if they were capable...

I made the mistake of casually using the word `burn` in reference to their technology in front of a rep , and got to hold the black slag leftover from the process. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/plasma-converter.htm

mgmt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqrAWYtd6RI

vaalea

the critique is that gasification really requires materials that would be more valuable to recycle/compost.


anyway..

A Belgian company Advanced Plasma Power is planning to extract a 16.5 million tonnes of solid waste from a landfill which has been in use since the 1960s. Several other European companies are analyzing the feasibility of such projects.
http://cleantechnica.com/2010/10/12/eu-companies-plan-to-dig-up-landfills-to-convert-decades-old-waste-into-energy/

ClareVisitor

A bit less "cool", but progress all the same.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/18/plastic-recycling-plant-takes-all-sorts

Chuck all sorts of plastic in, they don't care.

Pete M.

Too good to be true?

Come on now, where'e the catch?

What's the capital cost?

How would it affect current, and improving, recycling rates?

What are the processes?

Is the aggregate really inert?

Lots of questions....

If it worked, obviously, that'd be great.

Akey Mullinz

an offshoot of OMC engineering , pure green technology (or energy ,not sure ) are undergoing trials of a gassification plant in Thurles , rumours have it that it has been very successful .