| Ottawa Building North America’s First Gasification Facility |
| Written by Jaymi Heimbuch | ||
| Monday, 14 July 2008 | ||
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The plant, proposed by PlascoEnergy Group, will use gasification (rather than more commonly used incineration) to generate electricity, and they’re hoping they can use a cooler gasification process to lower the cost to a competitive price. The plant will utilize plasma-torch technology to break down trash into syngas – a mix of hydrogen and carbon monoxide – which can be burned in turbines and engines to create electricity. It’s an expensive endeavor, hence the worry about getting the process tweaked to lower costs. They're also relying on the right combination of rising costs for traditional electricity and fees collected from the city. Sounds a little risky, but possibly doable. There's probably a few creative financing angles they could toss around too, in terms of trash collecting and whatnot, should the new gasification process turn out to be not be as money saving as they hope. The facility will be North America’s first, but similar plants in Europe and Via TechnologyReview; Photo via PlascoEnergy Group
Comments
(12)
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written by Flahooler , July 14, 2008
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written by dialtone , July 14, 2008
once again the Anything Into Oil process I think is better - you get diesel fuel, methane, minerals & water - with the proposedplasma-torch technology you still have a waste product at the end that needs to be disposed of somehow
Treasurer, wastenotIOWA
written by CharlieK , July 14, 2008
To dialtone:
There is not necessarily waste product at the end that you need to dispose of. In the pure operation, syngas and inert slag that has uses. CharlieK
Waste to energy
written by The Food Monster , July 15, 2008
http://thefoodmonsterblog.blogspot.com
You can't create something from nothing, but this gives uses a negative and turns it into a positive. Nothing like the old two birds with one stone. It would be built in more cities, if the price for the electricity were competitive.
Where does the energy come from to burn
written by interested , July 15, 2008
Maybe i missed something or the article above was not to clear.
But where does the energy come from to burn the waste in the first place? Somehow i don't think there will be any net increase in energy out of this project and more likely more energy will be used then will be created, and in the end the extra energy cost of running this plant will raise our electricity costs in Ottawa. This seems like a waste of money to me. There is lots of land up here and we are in no way running out of space like other bigger cities to the south.
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written by Jared , July 15, 2008
Living in Ottawa I have kept an eye on this tech since they started building the test facility at the city dump.
The energy for the plasma torch actually comes from generators onsite that use the combustible gases created from the plasmafication process to go. Basically, it powers itself, but there is a lot of power left over, so they pump it into the grid. The city loves this plan because our primary dump is full, and our primary private dump is turning into an eyesore. This new plant is designed to actually use more waste per day then the city generates and therefore actually empty our dump over time. Dig into the technology some, it's really interesting and might have some amazing potential to save a lot of cities from opening new dumps.
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written by crapfighter , July 15, 2008
Interested, you should learn more about plasma gasification. It is a net energy creator, requiring only about 20 percent of the energy output to power the facility.
The stuff going into landfills is simply becoming too valuable to dump. It can serve a higher purpose, creating energy, without polluting. What's not to like about that?
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written by a guest , July 15, 2008
There is also a new form of gasification technology being developed in build in ohio currently which creates as a by product carbon nano-tubes on a industrial scale. Will be interesting to see which plant is completed first.
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written by Lin Higley , July 15, 2008
So called garbage is mostly carbon based organics 83% on ave. (burnable) solids simalar to a low grade of coal, the problem is the water. this is a money maker and better than burning the stuff.
What the article dosn't mention...
written by Rich , July 16, 2008
What the article doesn't mention is that to be economically viable, waste to energy plants need a steady stream of input trash. In essence this ends up promoting consumption and decreasing recycling, as the financial impetus in the contract between the city and the trash incineration company means they have to put in the trash or pay for the system. I'm paraphrasing from what is said here:
http://www.no-burn.org/ , whic...scam...
Rich said it first
written by denny , July 16, 2008
so all I can do is agree, these plants need a steady stream of garbage over their lifetime to justify the huge investments.
Over the next 20 years, anyone living near one of these plants who espouses waste reduction will be seen as (as the Americans like to say) 'unpatriotic'.
Plasco all smoke and mirrors
written by Zero Waste Vancouver , July 29, 2008
Lots of ifs in this story, as your author points out between the lines.
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Keep an eye on this company. With the rapidly expanding costs of opening new landfills, this technology will be going places in a hurry.