During a recent browsing session, I came across this article on plasma gasification from the NY Times (I should really switch to the WSJ but the search function on NYT is just too good). Incidentally, my friend Christine asked me about it as well so I decided to get writing!
In case you don’t have the time to read the article (or are too lazy like most) here’s a quick summary: Machines have been developed that take in waste, break down the chemical bonds, filter out particular classes of materials, and produce a gas similar to natural gas that can be used for electricity generation.
Now, this is awesome right?! Take a bunch of trash, throw it into this next-gen system and voila! Electricity! Let’s just dump all our trash into these systems and power our houses right?! Well… not so much. Here’s why:
1) The electricity that is generated from these systems is “enough to run the system”. That’s the most important aspect of this news – we must categorize it was waste management as opposed to power generation. Too often to do we approach systems and see that they have some electricity converting abilities without realizing the energy required to run the system itself. These plasma gasification machines are power-hungry, and consume just as much as they spit out in this case.
2) For those of you thinking “well let’s put in more trash and get more out”, that isn’t really an option because of the machine power needs. And, perhaps more importantly, the systems still produce up to “half the nitrogen oxides” of incineration techniques – yes that’s a great improvement in terms of dealing with waste, but a step back from the perspective of electricity generation.
3) The article rightly points out that this is not a better alternative to recycling or composting, but rather an improvement over waste incineration. With many states looking to make fast transitions to “cleaner” alternatives, policy makers may be too quick to jump at this opportunity instead of pursuing more sustainable options.
That being said, I don’t want to discredit the process by any means! In terms of waste management, this looks like a great option going forward, especially with the ability to process some dangerous chemicals. The self-sustaining aspect is also something the waste management industry could benefit from big time. These machines are meant to deal with waste, and I’d much rather have them in place than stuffing the ground with trash, or shipping waste around. However, it’s important to separate waste energy for the purpose of electricity generation vs. waste energy for waste management.
So, clean source of electricity? Not so much. Renewable energy credits? Eh… that’s a grey area I don’t think we should enter with this. Awesome alternative to burning solid waste and hazardous materials? Absolutely.
The Energetic 