What to Do with All of That Garbage? Recycle It!
Plasma gasification takes garbage of nearly any type and turns it into an environmental boon for any town with a landfill. The complicated machines that perform this green service are called plasma converters.
Explore this lens to learn more about the process and its promise for land reclamation and use as a renewable energy source. Learn how we can at least take the enormous piles of waste created by urban sprawl and turn them into something useful. Please drop a note in my guestbook if you have feedback or links to share.
Explore this lens to learn more about the process and its promise for land reclamation and use as a renewable energy source. Learn how we can at least take the enormous piles of waste created by urban sprawl and turn them into something useful. Please drop a note in my guestbook if you have feedback or links to share.
How Can Plasma Gasification Help the Environment?
Here's the simple version.
The idea runs as follows. You take refuse - household garbage, old tires, industrial and hazardous waste, used oil - and you use electricity to generate heat so intense that the items separate into their individual atoms. They system siphons the hydrogen and carbon monoxide created by organic matter off into a gas called "syngas" that, once cleaned, can be used as a fuel source much like natural gas.
Depending on the garbage put into the system, the rest of the material solidifies into a glass-like substance that can be used in roadways, abrasives, and tiles or a metal alloy that can be refined and re-used. The heat produced during the process can be captured to generate electricity, enough to both power the process and put into the power grid for others to use.
Depending on the garbage put into the system, the rest of the material solidifies into a glass-like substance that can be used in roadways, abrasives, and tiles or a metal alloy that can be refined and re-used. The heat produced during the process can be captured to generate electricity, enough to both power the process and put into the power grid for others to use.
Where can you learn more about plasma gasification?
Understand how plasma converters turn trash into environmental treasure.
While the concept is relatively simple, the process and the outlooks for plasma gasification vary depending on who you ask. Read more at the sites linked below, including an automobile manufacturer and sites dedicated to green and clean fuels.
- The Prophet of Garbage
- Popular Science tells you how a plasma Converter turns our most vile and toxic trash into clean energy-and promises to make a relic of the landfill.
- Waste-to-Energy: Plasma Gasification
- "Plasma gasification will obliterate garbage and create energy," says Scream to be Green.
- Plasma Gasification Transforms Garbage into Clean Energy
- InventorSpot explores the possibilities of plasma conversion.
- GM Blog: Alternative Fuels
- Coskata Comes One Step Closer to Producing $1 per Gallon Ethanol - from Garbage.
- Safe Waste and Power - The Plasma Gasification Process
- In plasma gasification, fuel or waste is fed to a reactor vessel where an electrically generated plasma at a temperature of 20,000 C? is present. When the fuel or waste is exposed to the plasma it is heated to a very high temperature (>2,000C?)...
- HowStuffWorks: Plasma Converters
- Plasma converters generate electricity for our homes by burning trash. This article has some terrific pictures and a little movie explaining how the plasma works on garbage.
Get In-Depth about Renewable Energy and Plasma Gasification
Reading on-line makes for excellent quick learning, but nothing gives you the big picutre like a book. Check out these titles covering renewable energy sources, the economics and uses of gasification, and making your life greener.
Plasma AT Work
Amazon Price: (as of 12/24/2009) 
The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy: Achieving Energy Independence through Solar, Wind, Biomass and Hydropower (Mother Earth News Wiser Living)
Amazon Price: $21.24 (as of 12/24/2009)
Our Earth: Clean Energy (Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers)
Amazon Price: $6.95 (as of 12/24/2009)
Renewable Energy: Sustainable Energy Concepts for the Future
Amazon Price: $30.00 (as of 12/24/2009)
The Solar Economy: Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future
Amazon Price: $26.60 (as of 12/24/2009)
Plasma Gasification News and Views
- Group: Patrick's stance will halt NRG Energy's Somerset plant
- ?In 2006, NRG applied for permits to refuel the Somerset plant using renewable biomass as fuel in advanced, clean plasma gasification technology," Gaier ...
- KEDA Board to hear about RECAP trip
- KEDA Director Paul Nevanen is expected to give an update on the Renewable Energy Clean Air Project plasma gasification facility after he and several other ...
- Coskata: Slow and steady wins the race
- By Anna Austin Coskata Inc., along with strategic investor General Motors Corp. and plasma gasification veteran Alter NRG Corp., officially unveiled its ...
- Garbage In - Garbage Out
- Consider that the technology of plasma gasification, wherein waste is fed through a powerful electric arc and converted into basic elements in gaseous form, ...
Where do you stand on garbage, landfills, and gasification?
Please share your thoughts and ideas with me, as well as any sites that may help get the word out about this promising technology.
submit
-
Reply
- Chandler Chandler Sep 11, 2009 @ 2:30 pm
- This is a great collection of Plasma Gasification information. Thank you. I've just come across a company in my city, Plasma Waste Recycling, Inc, that has a working facility running now. While it seems to good to be true, it really uses decades proven technology from steel mills to create Plasma Gasification 2.0. Most previous Plasma methods use a Plasma torch, which actually incinderates, resulting in both emmissions and higher energy costs. They use it with graphite rods to reduce energy required for the process, thus creating a positive revenue generator while also eliminating the emissions problem. The only tough part is getting your city council people to be the first to make the multi-million dollar bet. More at www.plasma-wr.com
-
Reply
- trosquin trosquin Jul 22, 2009 @ 4:33 pm
- Sweet...I love Plasma! Yes trash would be a great source of power for our cars!
-
Reply
- HenryE HenryE Jun 10, 2009 @ 8:39 am
- This is new to me and very interesting! I wonder if we'll see more growth in this technology over the next few years. Heaven knows we need some type of solution!
-
Reply
- starsam starsam Feb 25, 2009 @ 11:06 pm
- Your lens would be a great addition to the 'Solar Technology and Solar Energy' Group
( http://www.squidoo.com/groups/solar )
Feel free to add it anytime!
-
Reply
- davewashere davewashere Oct 21, 2008 @ 10:00 am
- I read an article in Wired about this last year. Seems like this could be the type of technology that could really have a huge impact on the world. If only governments had the resources to invest in this as much as they invest in new technologies for hurting people.
-
Reply
- legbamel legbamel Oct 5, 2008 @ 10:24 pm
- I thought it was time more people learned about the possibilities. Thanks for stopping by!
-
Reply
- clairs clairs Oct 5, 2008 @ 7:37 am
- Wow thats incredible
-
Reply
- Twmarsh Twmarsh Oct 1, 2008 @ 7:02 pm
- I never knew much about plasma gasification until now. Nice informative five star lens!
by legbamel
Explore related pages
What Not Recycling Will Do To You- Recycling isn't exactly a new idea, but it's only moved to a more important aspe...
Going Green? T-shirts and Gifts for Think Green People!- Going Green Gifts is a web store dedicated to providing you with wonderful t-shi...
How to Recycle With Freecycle- "The Freecycle Network is made up of 4,342 groups with 4,921,000 members ac...
Your Green Guide: How To Live A Greener Life
- Are you looking for more information about how to live a greener, more eco-frien...
Solar Power- Solar power is a unique form of energy that could very well fuel humanities lust...
Urban Sprawl and the Environment- As people spread out and destroy natural habitats, they hurt the environment in...
