Plasma arc & Gasification
An electric arc is an electrical breakdown of a gas which produces an ongoing plasma discharge, resulting from a current flowing through normally nonconductive media such as air. Plasma gasification is a waste treatment technology that uses high electrical energy and high temperature created by an electrical arc gasifier. This ark breaks down waste primarily into elemental gas and solid waste (inert ash), in a device called a plasma converter. The process has been intended to be a net generator of electricity, depending upon composition input wastes, and to reduce the volumes of waste being sent to landfill sites.
Relatively high voltage, high amperage electricity is passed between two electrodes, spaced apart, creating an electrical arc. Inert gas (air or inert gases under pressure) is passed through the arc into a sealed containment containing waste material, temperatures as high as 3,000°C (5,500°F) are reached in the ark. At these temperatures most types of waste are broken into basic elemental components in a gaseous form, and complex molecules are atomized separating them into individual atoms.
The reactor operates at a slightly negative pressure, meaning that the feed system is complimented by a gaseous removal system, and later, a solid removal system. Depending on the input waste (plastics tend to be high in hydrogen and carbon), gas from the plasma containment can be removed as Syngas, and may be refined into various fuels at a later stage
The plasma FILL reactor reduces material input up to 95%, and all of the by-products of the reaction are commercial. Potentially, all waste delivered into the reactor is eliminated. This fact transforms nearly every notion of waste management. Landfills are no longer "landlocked".
The most significant effect is the transformation of the landfill into the waste depot.
In a plant where waste is transformed into other commercial products your biggest asset is the ability to continue to attract agents who will deliver waste.
There are 2 major costs that a plasma FILL plant will recover:
Opportunity cost based on market mispricing & the lost value once the landfill is capped.
Virtually every other physical asset goes up in value as supply goes down. It's hard to imagine for instance that the cost of oil will remain constant as it's known supply is diminished. The same is true with buildable land.
By the laws of economics landfill managers should charge ever-increasing costs to use their landfill as the lifetime of the facility comes to an end. Of course that is not the case. All of the revenue that is lost as a result of permitting and municipal economics is suddenly regained with the introduction of the plasma FILL.
The plasma FILL reactor enables landfill owners to recover these lost costs by accelerating the amount of waste they can accept.
Secondly, the value of your assets are diminishing with the arrival of each truck. The book value of your assets are diminished by exactly the tipping fee of each arrival.
If only 5% of your landfill is used for each truck that multiplies the value of each arrival by 20 times. If you use the infinite FILL service, where all commercial by-products are removed from your facility, the value of each arriving truck is mathematically infinite.
This is a complete transformation in the valuation of your business.
These are new methods applied to an old technology, and as such, the specific valuation parameters for this revaluation are not yet available. However, it is virtually certain that the transformation of landfill to waste depot has multiple gains for the asset owners in cost and revenue flow, the ability to finance existing operations and sustainable book asset value.
It is unlikely that any other single capital improvement will have as dramatic an effect on your assets as the introduction of plasma FILL reactors.
The power generation section of the facility is based on a conventional combined-cycle power plant. Typically fueled with natural gas, they are some of the cleanest and most efficient power plants in existence. Our facilities would be fueled primarily with clean synthesis gas or "syngas." The fuel gas is used in a gas turbine, where the expanding gases spin the turbine and power an electric generator. The hot exhaust from the gas turbine is directed to a steam generator, which produces steam that drives a steam turbine and another electric generator. Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) would also be used to remove any nitrogen oxides (NOx, or smog).
Our facilities can generate enough electricity at one facility to nearly power 40,000 homes. We estimate that of the electricity/energy created through the process, 20% will be used for self-sustenance and 80% can be sold to a local grid as green energy.
Some of the heat from the gases can be used to convert water into steam, which can be used to generate electricity through steam turbines. This will reduce greenhouse gases as well and help prevent acid rain, while producing thousands of barrels of natural gas and Megawatt-hours of electricity. Electric power can be generated using a conventional combined cycle (steam turbine, gas turbine) power plant or by using Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) that are fueled by carbon monoxide and/or hydrogen.
Implementing technologies that utilize renewable resources such as waste to produce energy, without depleting earth’s limited resources, can lead us into a new era of environmental responsibility and true energy independence.
This is a process that converts carbonaceous materials, such as coal, petroleum, biofuel, or biomass, into carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reacting the raw material at high temperatures with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam. The resulting gas mixture is called synthesis gas or syngas and is itself a fuel. Gasification is a method for extracting energy from many different types of organic materials.
The advantage of gasification is that using the syngas is potentially more efficient than direct combustion of the original fuel because it can be combusted at higher temperatures or even in fuel cells, so that the thermodynamic upper limit to the efficiency defined by Carnot's rule is higher or not applicable. Syngas may be burned directly in internal combustion engines, used to produce methanol and hydrogen, or converted via the Fischer-Tropsch process into synthetic fuel. Gasification can also begin with materials that are not otherwise useful fuels, such as biomass or organic waste. In addition, the high-temperature combustion refines out corrosive ash elements such as chloride and potassium, allowing clean gas production from otherwise problematic fuels.
Gasification of fossil fuels is currently widely used on industrial scales to generate electricity. However, almost any type of organic material can be used as the raw material for gasification, such as wood, biomass, or even plastic waste.