Landfill alternative to generate energy »
Posted By Debbie 1 year, 8 months ago in Science & TechnologyA Michigan company could become the first in the nation to generate electricity by incinerating waste, thereby reducing the need for landfills. SunCrest Energy, based in southwest Michigan, wants to build a facility that would incinerate trash at more than 10,000 degrees, converting it to synthetic gas that would power...turbines.
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Debbie
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1-2-Oscar1 year, 8 months ago
The idea that trash can be burned to generate electricity has been around a long time, but implementing it is more difficult than most realize. One problem is that mny Americans don't like to sort their trash, so that all sorts of rubbish arrives mixed together. Much of it burns cleanly, but some waste, especially plastics, will produce toxic fumes when burned. I would be interested to learn how SunCrestEnergy plans to handle this problem.
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Mr-opinion1 year, 8 months ago
Actually these type of plants have EXISTED elsewhere in the industrialized world for a long long time, the problems you mentioned are not quite as serious as one would think - the plants do some pre sorting, magnetically and some cammera monitored 'hand' (mechanized) sorting. The toxicity is a lot lower due to the enourmous temperatues these type of incineraters burn and scrubbers used - Frankfurt Germany has had 'twin towers' since 1968 duing precisely that.
the two issues that have faced them (happened to the proposal in SD country) NIMBY -Not In My Back Yard - the second problem they face is that even though they become largely self fueling they still take considderable fuel to maintain, and energy output is not as high as the money put in would 'have required'. With dumps becoming a shortage and expensive as well as electric rates higher they become more feasable.
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blainegarrett1 year, 8 months ago
In a town near my home town they do this. There is an incinerator there and they burn the county's waste to produce energy and pipe it over to the cheese plant (yes, I am from Wisconsin). Cork town cheese is the factory in Almena, WI.
And yes, rural people reaaally don't recycle or separate their garbage, so the incinerator owners hire people to sort. They actually hire a lot of mentally handicapped people who have a hard time finding work in the area. I think it pays pretty well too, especially for the area. So in my opinion it is win win.
I didn't fully read the article, but i think it is a great idea and has already been put forward long ago.
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saintetienne1 year, 8 months ago
"blainegarrett - I had the same type of idea in my head a long time ago. Those people who are hard to employ otherwise could have jobs. This would be a win win situation. Bring down the size of the landfills over time and use that energy for many things."
Oh no. Hang on everyone....TESSYLO is going to tell us all how to run our business, provide jobs AND transfer garbage into energy!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh Tissue-lo, you really DO crack me up! You're starting to sound more and more like Al "I invented the Internet" Gore every day. You seem DETERMINED to win that Nobel Putz prize.
What's next, Testes-lo? Are you going to win an OSCAR for directing a documentary full of half-truths and exaggerations?
"blainegarrett - I had the same type of idea in my head a long time ago."
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Well all I can say is, if you did, it must have been pretty lonely!!
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saintetienne1 year, 8 months ago
Tessylo,
That's a great idea! You, Tessylo, could sort out the garbage, light it on fire, then inhale it to see if it's toxic or if it could be used to create energy. If you turn green and keel over dead, we'll pass the job on to some other idiot Liberal, until we find a solution!
You're right, Tessylo-IQ, that would be a GREAT job for you. After all, it beats your current job of oil-sludge collector, although it may not pay as well. I hear oil sludge has gone up to four dollars a ton now.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
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Will13131 year, 8 months ago
That's a great idea! You, Tessylo, could sort out the garbage, light it on fire, then inhale it to see if it's toxic or if it could be used to create energy. If you turn green and keel over dead, we'll pass the job on to some other idiot Liberal, until we find a solution
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or it could make him insane.. as it has apparently done to you....
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joeblowe1 year, 8 months ago
Those municipal incinerators didn't get anywhere near this hot, I don't believe. That is what caused the air quality issues. At these temperatures, there just aren't many long chain molecules left to create an odor.
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mbkijb1 year, 8 months ago
hoooooray!!!!! a company who cares!! let's do it!!!! NOW, no time to wait anymore.
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OncejesterwasI1 year, 8 months ago
I think some one beat Suncrest to it.
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/873aae7bf8...
No need to sort. No air quality issues. They are even using this guys machine in Korea to safely dispose of agent orange stockpiles. Just grind up the trash (everything from dirty diapers to live rounds of amo) and feed it into a plasma torch.
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joeblowe1 year, 8 months ago
Yeah - I remember reading about a device to do this in Popular Science too. Looked like a pretty good idea. Around here, there are landfills you can drive by that have gas outlets scattered around the pile oftentimes just burning off methane into the air. Wasting it, in other words. There is a waste treatment plant I drive past that does the same thing - and at a much higher rate. There is a LOT of methane generated during the bacteriological treatment of waste water. It seems kind of silly to just WASTE all that heat. I do know of at least ONE wastewater plant that uses generated methane to provide heat during the winter, so I KNOW it can be done.
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nostalgia1 year, 8 months ago
They can also do this:
Denton Biodiesel Project
The City of Denton's continued commitment to reducing air pollution has led to the exploration of alternative fuels for diesel-powered vehicles. This search culminated in a project using renewable-energy to create renewable fuel
The new biodiesel production facility, located at the City of Denton Landfill and operated by Biodiesel Industries of Greater Dallas/Fort Worth, is the first public/private collaboration of its kind in the nation.
It has an initial production capacity of three million gallons of pure biodiesel per year and is powered by renewable biogas extracted from the adjacent City of Denton Landfill. The use of the landfill's biogas to supply all of the energy needs to the production facility, including all process heat and power, makes this project the first of its kind.
http://www.cityofdenton.com/pages/mygovenvironm...
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afoaf1 year, 8 months ago
According to the EPA we produce 250 million tons of waste each year.
It requires an 8 square foot space to hold 1 ton of garbage.
That's 31 million square feet of trash per year.
31 million square feet is about 1 square mile.
At a 60 foot depth, a 11x11 mile landfill is large enough to accommodate all the waste America generates for 100 years.
Repeat that to yourself...an 11 mile by 11 mile area can accommodate ALL the trash the US produces for the next 100 years.
Look it up!
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Debbie1 year, 8 months ago
It does sound good!I really hope this is something that can be done without finding out 10 yrs after its being widely used that theres a deadly,previously unkown toxin resulting from it all.
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Mr-opinion1 year, 8 months ago
About darn time this great country joins the rest of the industrialized word - Europ has been doing is for eons.
The main problem has always been - NIMBY.
They presort trash a little bit, and burn at very high temperatures (1500 ) elemininating a lot of toxic fumes, and have scrubbers in the stack for the rest - they are clean - don't realy smell nd the ones I saw in '68 in frankfurt kind of looked like 3-mile island towers (taler and skinnier on top.
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julfec2861 year, 8 months ago
This is a great thing new or old, the air quality is not an issue at 10,000 degrees. This a wonderful thing for the world and they do have this in place in other states, but not enough. Michigan could use a positive right now!
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julfec2861 year, 8 months ago
This is cleaner than natural gas. According to the EPA testings. This IS NOT an incineration process. There is no such system in the world even the human body which is the most perfect machine ever made even has emissions, its the amount we are concered with. This process is called "plasma arc gasification waste to energy" --- google it to find more info.
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