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Plans to gasify solid waste expand
by
Brian R. Hook 
Plans to build facilities to gasify municipal
solid waste are starting to materialize around the country as work proceeds
on a plasma gasification facility in Florida.
The St. Lucie County Solid Waste Baling & Recycling Facility in St. Lucie
County, Florida, which processes nearly 1,300 tons of waste a day, hopes
to start construction on a new plant to turn trash into power in the next
12 months.
St. Lucie County started its due diligence process to find a permanent solution
for its waste stream over three years ago, said Ron Roberts, assistant solid
waste director. The county researched bioreactors, incineration, standard
gasification, plasma arc gasification, pyrolysis, and other thermal conversion
technology processes.
“After more than 4,000 pages of research, one technology had the staying
power to remain at the top of the list. It was plasma arc gasification,” Roberts
said.
An ionized gas is passed over an electrical arc creating plasma, a super
heated gas more than 5,000 degrees Celsius. This breaks the molecular bonds
and the carbonaceous waste is converted into a synthetic gas of mainly hydrogen
and carbon monoxide.
Atlanta-based Geoplasma LLC, a subsidiary of Jacoby Development Inc., is
developing the plasma-arc gasification project in St. Lucie County. The facility,
which will be owned and operated by Geoplasma, will cost approximately $200
million. ...read
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