Joseph Longo's Plasma Converter turns our most vile and toxic trash into clean energy—and promises to make a relic of the landfill.

I found this a very interesting read.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/873aae7bf86c0110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

Some highlights mentioned in the article are:


The Plasma Converter stands in the center of the room.
The entire thing takes up about as much space as a two-car garage, surprisingly compact for a machine that can consume nearly any type of waste—from dirty diapers to chemical weapons—by annihilating toxic materials in a process as old as the universe itself. Called plasma gasification, it works a little like the big bang, only backward (you get nothing from something). Inside a sealed vessel made of stainless steel and filled with a stable gas—either pure nitrogen or, as in this case, ordinary air—a 650-volt current passing between two electrodes rips electrons from the air, converting the gas into plasma. Current flows continuously through this newly formed plasma, creating a field of extremely intense energy very much like lightning. The radiant energy of the plasma arc is so powerful, it disintegrates trash into its constituent elements by tearing apart molecular bonds. The system is capable of breaking down pretty much anything except nuclear waste, the isotopes of which are indestructible. The only by-products are an obsidian-like glass used as a raw material for numerous applications, including bathroom tiles and high-strength asphalt, and a synthesis gas, or “syngas”—a mixture of primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be converted into a variety of marketable fuels, including ethanol, natural gas and hydrogen.

In a city with an average tipping fee, a $250-million converter could pay for itself in about 10 years, and that’s without factoring in the money made from selling the excess electricity and syngas. After that break-even point, it’s pure profit.

Someday very soon, cities might actually make money from garbage.



I haven't had the time to read the entire article, but I figured I would post it if anyone else was interested in it.

Wow, that's quite intriguing.

I agree, very interesting. Star Trek technology at Six Million Dollar Man prices!

Yea, I saw a video on this. Interesting stuff.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=H1Rax3IWc40

It is a nice concept, and unfortunately, very costly.

Thanks for sharing the video, WindWip.

sweet. so lets build a few gigantic trash converters already. someone has to be willing to invest in such a great idea.

Fascinating. I wonder what the downside is?

Fascinating. I wonder what the downside is?
It kills off the owl population of the region it resides in.

Oh, and all the humans too.

Fascinating. I wonder what the downside is?

The only downside I could find is the price but compared to all the benefits received from using it, I wouldn't consider that a down side either. It would eliminate landfills and methane—a greenhouse gas—from the decomposing waste and bio-hazard materials. (medical wastes,etc)


It creates enough energy to run itself, and excess electricity and syngas. After that break-even point, it’s pure profit.

It kills off the owl population of the region it resides in.
Can't be having that now, can we? What will we make our O RLY pictures from?

The only downside I could find is the price but compared to all the benefits received from using it, I wouldn't consider that a down side either. It would eliminate landfills and methane—a greenhouse gas—from the decomposing waste and bio-hazard materials. (medical wastes,etc)


It creates enough energy to run itself, and excess electricity and syngas. After that break-even point, it’s pure profit.

Yes, the cost is high, yet within X number of years has paid for itself. The actual payoff is long term in that landfills may eventually go away. If it works as advertised, it seems to be a winning solution.

Fascinating. I wonder what the downside is?

People will assume that it must be harmful in some way and then refuse to have one within 100 miles of their home. Politicians will jump on the bandwagon in order to score points with the constituency and write laws banning the method. Mexico will become filthy rich doing it for us.

People will assume that it must be harmful in some way and then refuse to have one within 100 miles of their home. Politicians will jump on the bandwagon in order to score points with the constituency and write laws banning the method. Mexico will become filthy rich doing it for us.

From the last page of the article.

Of course, the technology, still unproven on a large scale, has its skeptics. “That obsidian-like slag contains toxic heavy metals and breaks down when exposed to water,” claims Brad Van Guilder, a scientist at the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which advocates for clean air and water. “Dump it in a landfill, and it could one day contaminate local groundwater.” Others wonder about the cleanliness of the syngas. “In the cool-down phases, the components in the syngas could re-form into toxins,” warns Monica Wilson, the international coordinator for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, in Berkeley, California.

From the last page of the article.

Of course, the technology, still unproven on a large scale, has its skeptics. “That obsidian-like slag contains toxic heavy metals and breaks down when exposed to water,” claims Brad Van Guilder, a scientist at the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which advocates for clean air and water. “Dump it in a landfill, and it could one day contaminate local groundwater.” Others wonder about the cleanliness of the syngas. “In the cool-down phases, the components in the syngas could re-form into toxins,” warns Monica Wilson, the international coordinator for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, in Berkeley, California.

So there's a learning curve in dealing with something new. No surprise there. The resulting slag cannot have anything near the volume of the trash it came from. The EPA has made the trash industry become experts in burying things properly. There might even be another use for the stuff that some team of scientists can figure out. The same applies to utilizing the syngas. Establish a series of procedures for handling, shipping and using the stuff and run with it.

I agree that proper standards and testing to determine what the characteristics of the output are. I am not neccessarily against this, I just want the potential problems solved as much as possible before it goes into widespread use.