The plasma torches I am familiar with are from Westinghouse who has worked on them for 30 years or more.

Air is superheated with electric plasma torches – you do not blast the garbage with anything. One of the advantages of the plasma torch is that you can maintain low airflow through the material which is to be gasified.

The gas is then cooled to the point where it can be run through heat exchangers to preheat incoming air. Depending on the energy balance a boiler may possibly be used to recapture additional heat.

Due to the relatively low air/gas flow it is easier to clean the gas stream.

First class gas cleaning is needed as due to the high operating temperatures very fine particles are generated.

It is a good process but you are talking about megawatts of power to feed the torches.

I am not sure about ‘sorting. the goodies out of the slag. I believe it will truly be liquified and then solidified and nothing more than slag which can be landfilled safely.

The plasma torches I am familiar with are from Westinghouse who has worked on them for 30 years or more.

Air is superheated with electric plasma torches – you do not blast the garbage with anything. One of the advantages of the plasma torch is that you can maintain low airflow through the material which is to be gasified.

The gas is then cooled to the point where it can be run through heat exchangers to preheat incoming air. Depending on the energy balance a boiler may possibly be used to recapture additional heat.

Due to the relatively low air/gas flow it is easier to clean the gas stream.

First class gas cleaning is needed as due to the high operating temperatures very fine particles are generated.

It is a good process but you are talking about megawatts of power to feed the torches.

I am not sure about ‘sorting. the goodies out of the slag. I believe it will truly be liquified and then solidified and nothing more than slag which can be landfilled safely.

re-cycling is a good thing to do, and i would recommend it, but it can’t always be performed, this technology has a unique benifit of being able to break down metals, plastics and vapourise them into thier raw elements, so you get a large amount of gases release which can be burnt and turned into energy, and also molten ‘slag’ which can then be sifted and sorted and solt off back to market for manufacturing, as this slag will be rich with various metals and other such things. it takes alot of energy to create this super heated plasma, but alot of this can be recovered using standard steam turbine technology.

for more info, this is a good place to start…

http://science.howstuffworks.com/plasma-converter.htm

re-cycling is a good thing to do, and i would recommend it, but it can’t always be performed, this technology has a unique benifit of being able to break down metals, plastics and vapourise them into thier raw elements, so you get a large amount of gases release which can be burnt and turned into energy, and also molten ‘slag’ which can then be sifted and sorted and solt off back to market for manufacturing, as this slag will be rich with various metals and other such things. it takes alot of energy to create this super heated plasma, but alot of this can be recovered using standard steam turbine technology.

for more info, this is a good place to start…

http://science.howstuffworks.com/plasma-converter.htm

I can’t drop-off paint cans or solvents containers at my only recycling station for my 150,000 pop. metro. without an appointment on two business days during business hours only!

We shouldn’t be creating questionable gasses with the 4th state of energy- plasma. What we we need is a Real recycling and refuse law, with Real consequences.

btw, I called my metro recycling plant to ask them what to do with the 75 alkaline batteries I’ve saved up and they said “throw them in the garbage”. Twice. Try it yourself.