PLASMA WASTE CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY  

As fuel prices rise and fuel sources become an increasing global concern, alternative fuels are undergoing more and more investigation. It is only natural to turn to garbage barges and landfills, and wonder if perhaps our refuse can fuel our future.

It can, and the technology is surprising simple. By applying AC and DC current to plasma torches, an electrical arc is created that demolecularizes matter. More recently, carbon arc technology, using a graphite rod that is consumed in the process instead of a plasma torch, has been explored.

The electrical arc, at temperatures as high as 10,000°F, doesn’t burn matter – it disintegrates it. The technology has been demonstrated with a variety of materials, including municipal solid waste (MSW), yard waste, construction waste, industrial waste, hazardous waste, and medical waste. The high energy arc creates a high temperature, highly ionized synthetic gas, or syngas, and slag. The syngas can be used as an alternative to natural gas, and the slag can be processed and sold. No ash, no waste, just profit.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS 

• Plasma gasification can process raw MSW and recover existing buried landfill waste. In so doing, landfills can be returned to a higher and better use, offering landfill owners untold opportunities.
• Unlike incineration, air emissions in plasma arc technology are minimal.
• The long-term economic benefits of plasma gasification include the cost-effective destruction of waste, job creation, commercial production of byproducts, and clean electric and steam power generation.
• All byproducts are useful and can be sold. The plasma gasification process creates metals and an obsidian-like inert material that can be fractured and used as aggregate for construction, poured into molds for pavers or grit for sandpaper, or converted into rock wool for insulation.

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