On Sunday, Dec 29, 2013, the News & Record editorial board wrote:
"Work on the city’s trash problem ... now.
We know, we know ... the old song promises that “The sun’ll come out tomorrow.” But the city of Greensboro needs to think seriously about its long-term solid-waste problems today.
Better rates for garbage hauling and an increased emphasis on recycling are healthy developments. But a regional solution that factors in advances such as waste-to-energy technology is a decades-long proposition that needs attention right now."
Funny, I was saying the exact same thing before the Greensboro City Council closed the White Street Landfill to MSW (Municipal Solid Waste.) Among other things I am certified by the State of North Carolina as a Waste Transfer Station Operator. I know a little bit about these things.
For starters, we are currently paying to haul Greensboro garbage to a landfill 70 miles away plus paying upwards of $35 a ton in tipping fees for the landfill to accept that garbage. And despite what you might have heard, there will be no landfill in Asheboro so when the landfill Greensboro is currently using is filled then we will be hauling our garbage even farther away-- possibly even out of state. All the while the price goes up. Forget regional solutions, make them come to us.
Now let's get one thing straight: this in not incineration. Getting energy from incineration is the equivalent of heating water on top of a wood stove. Incineration works but it is very dirty and even less efficient.
The mistake Council has made in the past when looking at Waste-to-energy is in expecting systems to handle 100% of Greensboro's MSW right from the start. The cost to build such a thing is enormous and folks are right to be skeptical, how do we know it will work?
Now there's lots of different kinds of Waste-to-energy systems with the most promising being Gasification, Thermal depolymerization, Pyrolysis and Plasma arc gasification. Gasification produces combustible gases, hydrogen and synthetic fuels. Thermal depolymerization produces a synthetic crude oil which can be further refined. A Thermal depolymerization plant in Carthage, Missouri was reported in Discover Magazine on April 2, 2006 as producing 500 barrels of synthetic crude oil per day. It's said to be a high value crude oil containing light and heavy naphthas, kerosene, and gas oil fractions, and essentially no heavy fuel oils, tars, asphaltenes or waxes. I think that's the good stuff.
Of course, much of what we throw away is unsuitable for oil production but who knows?
Pyrolysis produces combustible tar/biooil and chars. But it requires a lot of tires and waste plastics in the waste stream. As far as I'm concerned, Plasma arc gasification is the future and the future is now. Plasma arc gasification or plasma gasification process (PGP) produces rich syngas including hydrogen and carbon monoxide usable for fuel cells or generating electricity to drive the plasma arch, usable vitrified silicate and metal ingots, salt and sulphur. If you've ever used a Plasma cutter to cut metal then you'll quickly grasp the concept. Just imagine sealing yourself in an air tight chamber and using a pump to siphon off the gases produced from the burning of the materials with your plasma arc. A little simplified and not that anyone with a brain would want to try it but you get the picture.
As for the rest of you, video:
I've used plasma torches, I wish I had one of my own. Plasma cutters were developed in the 1940s by the US Military to cut stainless steel for airplanes and weapons which is virtually impossible to cut using conventional cutting tools. Some plasma torches use water for fuel. This next video explains a coal plasma gasification process that also uses municipal solid waste:
As I wrote above, "The mistake Council has made in the past when looking at Waste-to-energy is in expecting systems to handle 100% of Greensboro's MSW right from the start." That's probably not going to happen. A better option would be to build a smaller Waste-to-energy plant on some portion of that never before used 500 acres adjacent to the White Street Landfill and belonging to the City of Greensboro. Try it out on some of Greensboro's municipal solid waste.
Better yet, design a modular system that begins with one small plant and expands one small plant at a time as the bugs are worked out and things are made to work better. With a modular system you never have the complete plant break down all at once leaving us with no place to get rid of our garbage. And when we finally grow big enough to get rid of all our garbage, if the numbers crunch the right way, we can expand the system with more modules and start charging High Point and Eden to take their garbage when they run out of space.
And all the while we're bringing high tech, high paying jobs to east Greensboro and solving Greensboro's biggest problems one module at a time.
Folks, please share this post with everyone you know for even if Greensboro isn't the early adopter I want the Greensboro City Council to know that I gave them every opportunity to make Greensboro the first.
