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Burning plastics isn't great because of all the awful combustion products. Plasma gasification sounds like a good alternative. The molecular bonds in the plast

Burning plastics isn't great because of all the awful combustion products. Plasma gasification sounds like a good alternative. The molecular bonds in the plastics are broken and you end up with mostly carbon monoxide plus hydrogen gas, itself a nice fuel source. Metals and other heavy elements are typically allowed to settle into some molten glass to keep them contained. A publicly traded company called StarTech trying to do this was getting lots of publicity as recently as 2007 (https://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2007-03/prophet-garbage/ https://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2007-03/prophet-garba...) but went bankrupt in 2013 after the death of its founder, Joseph Longo (https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Wilton-s-environmental-darling-Startech-on-the-4158575.php https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Wilton-s-environmental-d...). A company called InEnTec claims to have the technology deployed in a few places (https://inentec.com/pem-technology/deployed-pem-technology/ https://inentec.com/pem-technology/deployed-pem-technology/) but overall one doesn't hear much about this possibility. I wonder why not.

rapjr9 4y ago
I talked to the owner of a local waste management company about plasma gasification. He was aware of the technology and said it cost too much for him to use. He'd have to be taking in trash from five New England states to have enough volume to keep the machine fed and make it cost effective. Sounded like an opportunity to me, but it seemed too risky to him. I'm not sure why he thought the technology could not scale down to the size of his operation, though I have read that it is something you want to keep going continuously, otherwise it costs a lot (in electricity or fossil fuel) to build up enough heat to start the process. Maybe it requires a minimum thermal mass to be self sustaining?

rapjr9 4y ago

I talked to the owner of a local waste management company about plasma gasification. He was aware of the technology and said it cost too much for him to use. He'd have to be taking in trash from five New England states to have enough volume to keep the machine fed and make it cost effective. Sounded like an opportunity to me, but it seemed too risky to him. I'm not sure why he thought the technology could not scale down to the size of his operation, though I have read that it is something you want to keep going continuously, otherwise it costs a lot (in electricity or fossil fuel) to build up enough heat to start the process. Maybe it requires a minimum thermal mass to be self sustaining?