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CptFribble | 2 years ago

I am once again asking you to consider plasma gasification. Here is my standard comment, copied again:

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Why are we still not talking about plasma gasification? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification

As far as I can tell, the only real "disadvantages" if you can call them that, are:

1. more expensive than throwing the garbage in a big pile somewhere

2. need to clean it from time to time

3. not necessarily a profitable business

Other than that, it can handle just about anything that's not radioactive, can be designed to produce 0 toxic byproducts, and can run at or at least only slightly below energy neutral. Plasma gasifiers can also consume a huge amount of garbage for their size, so much so that the US Navy is starting to put them on the latest generation of aircraft carriers.

Not building out more gasifiers seems to me a failure of the free market. Because it's hard to make it profitable, no one is doing it - when really we should just be building one or two near every major city and funneling all our garbage there.

In theory, we could build out enough to start working through all the landfills too.

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ADDENDUM:

* This is NOT the same as incineration. Plasma gasification does not produce toxic gases vented to atmo, etc. The main byproducts are "syngas", which is mainly H2 and CO and can be reused to power the facility, and slag.

discuss

order

iamgopal|2 years ago

I’m sold. I work with municipalities for solid waste discarding, is there a practical design or reference that we can use ? How about using sterling engine for energy production?

cashsterling|2 years ago

Burning plastic (and all kinds of other trash) for energy, if done well, IS economical/profitable and not much more 'dirty' than burning natural gas.

I think a lot of refuse to energy plants in the US have been shutdown by environmental interest groups and negative sentiment from local residents, etc.

We should first use a lot less plastic in disposable things... but if we can't do that we, should burn it along with a lot of other trash.

carapace|2 years ago

That just puts the carbon into the air, where we do not want it. It would be better to bury it than burn it.