A non-technical look at the garbage problem
I recently met Hanan Levin who is one of the founders of AST; an Israeli based startup that is looking to develop plasma focused waste management facilities using their proprietary knowhow and processes. Knowing nothing about plasma, my first step was to surf the internet. Everything was so technical I had to print and reread each article twice (ok maybe three times). The following will probably irritate the technical types as an oversimplification – but I wanted to present the information as a first cut review to assist in decision-making about using plasma in waste management (as we all know, the first question of any good idea is – does it make sense in real life?). Hanan helped write this dummy’s guide to plasma in waste management.
For those of you not familiar, the world has a garbage problem. The solutions have generally fallen into three categories: Landfills, Recycling and Incineration.
LANDFILLS are becoming over utilized. Towns are increasingly taking a position of “anywhere but near me”. And dumping into the ocean is, quite simply, not a good thing. Moreover, landfill dumping is hard to monitor and there remains the very real possibility of groundwater contamination and leaching of hazmat into the surrounding area. Would you want that in your town, or even worse, next to your house?
RECYCLING is something we should all do, but not everyone does. Moreover, some materials simply are too difficult to physically or economically recycle, like razors, toothbrushes, bubble-wrap, plastic bottle caps, ceramics, fluorescent tubes, Freon containing appliances, saran wrap, etc. In other words, recycling, while something we should all continue, remains less than optimal given time and efficiency.
INCINERATION is age old. Build a bonfire and throw the trash on it. Well, it’s gotten a lot more sophisticated then what your Uncle Phil used to do but it’s the same concept. Mix together air, fuel (burnable trash) and heat and you get combustion. This combustion is done at a high temperature to destroy as many toxic chemicals as possible in a sealed container. The now burned trash either creates smoke, which is then scrubbed to clean as many remaining pollutants out of the smoke as possible or, ash, which remains at the bottom of the container and has to be treated at significant cost as a toxic byproduct, or shipped out to sites that specifically handle toxic byproducts. In general, incineration results in more waste product and more environmental issues than the newer technology of plasma.
PLASMA – THINK THE DESTROYER OF ALL!
Let’s start at the beginning. Plasma technology has been around for decades, regardless of its Star Trekkish connotation. However, using plasma for waste management is relatively new. Europe and Asia are at the forefront for using plasma in waste management and it’s slowly catching on in the US. The US’s slow rate of acceptance is not only because it would be fundamentally changing operations, which translates into cost, but also the natural reluctance to try something new. Below is why plasma treatment of waste should be considered.
In a nutshell, instead of incineration at lower temperatures, around 800°C to 1,500°C (1,500°F to 2,700°F), plasma technology vaporizes materials between 5,500°C (10,000°F) and above. At these extreme temperatures, the molecules of all waste are, in layman’s terms, blown apart and all poisons and toxins are destroyed. Organic waste (think diapers) turns into clean gas and, inorganic materials like metals, are liquefied and then cooled into an environmentally safe solid. The gas, which is called syngas, can be repurposed to power the plasma generator and create electricity. The solid material can be sold as building materials for construction or in roads.
Here is why we should look at plasma technology in waste management. In general, there is:
- LESS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
- ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDOUS WASTE REDUCTION
- COST EFFECTIVENESS
- ANY WASTE WORKS!
LESS ENVIONMENTAL IMPACT is a direct result of the high heat generated through plasma technology. That is why the term of art in its application is called plasma gasification. In short, the bulk of waste is gasified (syngas) which can then be repurposed for further power generation. The remaining solid waste can potentially build your next home!
ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDOUS WASTE REDUCTION is where plasma really outperforms traditional programs. If you think of medical waste, such as blood, microbiological waste, bodily fluids, or chemical waste like the one that comes from paint factories, incineration has significant air and water emission concerns and doesn’t really reduce the total amount of byproduct waste material for landfills. Plasma, on the other hand, significantly outperforms traditional methods, not only in overall reduction in byproduct because of its vaporization ability, but also in overall risk reduction. Again, from a layperson’s perspective, plasma blows apart molecules (the technical term is molecular disassociation or plasma pyrolysis) but I like the term “blown apart”.
Plasma technology can potentially remove the “radioactivity in waste”. You read about the barrels of radioactive stuff that is encased in concrete because the waste, being radioactive, will continue to be so for thousands of years. There are exciting studies being done about how plasma technology not only reduces the overall volume of radioactive waste, but also enhances its stability (apparently unstable radioactive waste is bad-really bad). There is a lot of interest in this area, so much so that there are even Handbooks on Advanced Radioactive Waste Conditioning Technology. Full disclosure, I didn’t read them as they were undoubtedly too complicated and I didn’t want to spend the 35 dollars for the download.
COST EFFECTIVNESS – Think of incineration as your garbage disposer – if you throw something in there that shouldn’t go in there like a fork, it breaks. Now, not only do you have to spend time and money to fix it, but adding insult to injury, you didn’t get rid of the waste! On the other hand, using plasma (the technical term is “plasma arc”) is practically a real life version of a science fiction movie vaporizer gun, where our hero shoots a ray onto any object (no matter what it is, a spaceship, a rock, or even a bad guy) and it just vaporizes into thin air. As discussed above, cost effectiveness also comes in the reduction in total waste volume, ability to use the syngas to generate energy, and byproduct waste recycling for things like building materials.
ANY WASTE WORKS! – Plasma works on practically all types of waste without the need to separate out different materials (Plasma, like the Honey Badger, just doesn’t care!). The dump and blast approach, bypassing separation is a significant labor and OPEX savings.Plasma saves money since there is no sorting of waste, no issues with mixed waste types, and significantly lower amounts of safe, hazard free byproduct to deal with (compared with a larger amount of still hazardous byproduct from incineration).
OK, I get it, the technology is amazing, but… what’s in it for me?
Well…beside the amazing impact of helping the environment, cleaning the earth of all the trash and waste we generate all the while generating clean energy while doing it, plasma technology is potentially financially profitable!
Think of the Plasma Arc plant as a rental property generating a continuous cash flow from a permanent tenant (the trash producer) paying high rent (the plasma waste management fee). In addition, the more “difficult” the tenant is, the more rent they pay! (Waste processing fees are dependent on the complexity of the waste, the more complex = the higher the fee).
Wait, there is more…the cherry on the top? Your “rental property” is located in the hottest neighborhood where prices are only going up and there are more buyers in the market than rental units available for sale (even the government is in the bidding process)! One concept is that of a closed lifecycle loop where a neighborhood, shopping mall, or technology hub can invest in their own plasma waste management facility that could literally make the area a closed loop system where all waste is eliminated or used, and the excess byproduct energy is returned to the local energy grid.
The market for Waste to Energy (WTE) plants are in high demand. Impact investing is sweeping the world. So much so that funds are established with the sole purpose of buying operating Clean Energy and Waste to Energy plants. Since plasma is the most advanced WTE technology out there, the demand for a successful operating plant is potentially increasing with EBITA multipliers increasing with each transaction.
Remember, this is a nontechnical look at plasma technology in waste management. The actual cost of energy needed to apply the plasma technology is based on the specifics of the type of waste (another term of art “waste feedstock”). Some waste feedstock will require more energy than others. Moreover, an analysis on all the things you would normally do in investing has to be reviewed, like incentives, land value, distribution cost, size of waste source, etc. Similarly, the energy value and amount that is produced via syngas is also very dependent on the waste feedstock. Any investment needs to validate the local market for value of power for sale versus cost to produce.
My first cut review is that the future of plasma in waste management looks promising and what the industry really needs are more individuals, companies and governments that are visionaries and willing to start the analysis to understand the technology and investment opportunities.