JAN 20

Why pay some big company huge amounts of money to haul away your trash when you can turn it into free energy? IST Energy has figured out a way to fit a trash-gassification power plant into a unit the size of a large dumpster, and they're looking to sell it to hospitals, office parks and universities.

The process is fairly clean, because it gassifies the trash and combusts the gas instead of combusting the trash itself. Of course, the plant would still produce carbon-dioxide, but it wouldn't produce the pollutants that many trash-burning facilities currently produce.

Universities and office parks can pay as much as $200,000 per year just for trash removal. Once that's added to the potential energy savings, IST's energy units start to look pretty cheap, even with an $850,000 price tag.

Unfortunately, trash has to be sorted before it can be put into the system, however. Metal and glass don't contain energy like organics do, so they must be removed and recycled separately. But almost everything else you can think of can be gassified and used to create energy.

Filling the unit with the maximum three tons of trash will produce about 120 kW of energy, and about twice that in heat. That power and heat is enough to power about 15% of the trash-producing building's energy needs.

Of course, it's never good to produce more trash, even if it is going to be used. In the end we're still burning trees (paper), other plants (food) and oil (plastic products.) But this is certainly a better use for this waste than having it sit in a landfill producing methane for the next thousand years.

Via CNet GreenTech

Comments (15)

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written by JScot, January 20, 2009

Wasn't a doctor just arrested and lost his medical licence for using fat from liposuction to make biodiesel? What's the difference, it is medical waste.

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Wow.
written by Maria, January 21, 2009

Amazing!
DFTBA

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plastic gasification?
written by andrew, January 21, 2009

are the emissions from plastic gasification similar to the releases from burning plastics? I am wondering if you have the same amount of dioxin emissions which I would be most concerned about.

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written by Tom, January 21, 2009

Wow, this is pretty amazing technology. I am, however, still concerned about the carbon-dioxide as well as its cost-effectiveness. Although universities and office parks have to pay for trash haul-away, they would need to still pay for it after something like this would be implemented since not all trash can be thrown into this dumpster - it has to be sorted first. Then there is the cost of the dumpster itself as well as educating people how to use it, how to sort, etc.

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silly idea
written by Raz, January 21, 2009

this is a silly idea unless sued as an emergency generator.....

paper = recyclable
organics = compostable
paper towels, etc = compostable
glass/metal/plastic = recyclable
batteries = recyclable
ink cartridges = recyclable
light bulbs = recyclable

I suppose not every city has weekly compost removal & if your lazy not to put ink cartridges, light bulbs, eye glasses, cell phones, and batteries in special boxes at home depot, a university, or something like that, then it would go in the garbage. But if you are a if company that could afford a trash generator, you would be able to organize a compost pickup and specialized recycling boxes.

Ever since weekly compost pickup, we produce virtually no garbage. It is amazing how much is recyclable / compostable.

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Waste to Energy good.. but this concern
written by Dan, January 21, 2009

In terms of efficiency, economies of scale, and filtering and scrubbing emissions from the exhausts, it seems like it would probably be better to have one large waste to energy facility for a region, as opposed to dozens of these spread around... it also makes emissions enforcement/compliance more difficult...

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/.
written by segagman, January 21, 2009

i read about this on slashdot this is awesome i think every community should have one...per capata.

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Great Article
written by Yamaha Dirt Bikes, January 22, 2009

Ya a good one.It is really a good technology which is eco -friendly.But will it really work against harmful emission.

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units?
written by eh, January 22, 2009

120 kW is a measurement of power not energy. Should it state that three tons of trash will generate 120 kWhr's? Or is there some information missing, like a three ton load of trash will generate 120 kW for eight hours?

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written by Ed, January 28, 2009

Gasification is just incineration in disguise. It is dirty, toxic and wasteful. It wastes recyclable and reusable materials.

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written by Tom Simpson, January 28, 2009

If it were to be restricted to organic products, the net contribution to the co2 level would be null because the plants recently pulled it while growing. Plastics should be recycled but try and find a place to recycle cardboard in Houston. My company sends a dumpster of cardboard boxes to the landfill every week.

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written by Lamson Nguyen, January 28, 2009

have you people never heard of the plasma converter?!!?!:
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2007-03/prophet-garbage

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Hmmmm
written by Richard Davine, January 28, 2009

Dioxin would be released through the burning of gasified plastic. I like ISTs idea, but agree that more sorting of recyclables is needed. Organic matter, including possibly human waste, can be effectively used to produce methane, without the need for gasification.
Burning resources, or their gases, is a waste of a reusable thing. I think this idea, applied to a public toilet, with an adapted IST unit emptying into the sewer when full, would be shit hot.
;^}

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Haiti
written by Steve Fernandez, January 31, 2009

Would love to know low cost means of implenementing this technology in Port-au-Prince, Haiti which has major problems with organic (and non-organic) waste disposal as well as a lack of electric and thermal energy sources.

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Please get the units right
written by Kevin, February 05, 2009

I really enjoy your site. It adds real value to my life, unlike most sensational news.

That said, I'm always cringing when you call kW a unit of energy. A kW is 1000 Watts POWER. A Watt is a Joule/second. A Joule is a unit of energy. Power*time = energy. So kWh is energy as well (NOT kW/h). Please spend some time on Wikipedia learning some engineering fundamentals. I see this in a lot of articles, and otherwise you seem to know your shit.

Thanks.

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