This story is archived
Landfill alternative to generate energy »
Posted by: Debbie 2 years, 2 months agoA 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.
Read Full Story at upi.com »
Submitted By:
Debbie
"Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for the wind to fly a kite. Or waiting around for Friday night or waiting perhaps for ...
This Story is Archived and Commenting is Closed
Comments: 26
-
1-2-Oscar
Oct. 22, 2007, 9:16 a.m.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.
-
blainegarrett
Oct. 22, 2007, 2:34 p.m.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.
-
saintetienne
Oct. 22, 2007, 4:39 p.m.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!!!!
-
-
simonsez
Oct. 22, 2007, 10:29 a.m.We used to incinerate trash back in the 60's or 70's and quit over air quality issues.
It will take some technology to do it in a way that it doesn't make matters worse. It doesn't burn as clean as natural gas, but it would certainly help the landfill problem.
-
mbkijb
Oct. 22, 2007, 11:11 a.m.hoooooray!!!!! a company who cares!! let's do it!!!! NOW, no time to wait anymore.
-
OncejesterwasI
Oct. 22, 2007, 11:27 a.m.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.
-
joeblowe
Oct. 22, 2007, 12:21 p.m.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.
-
afoaf
Oct. 22, 2007, 1:03 p.m.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!
-
Debbie
Oct. 22, 2007, 1:48 p.m.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.
-
nostalgia
Oct. 22, 2007, 4:22 p.m."City commissioners are debating over landfill expansion or reducing imported waste levels"
Why are we importing trash from Canada???
-
Mr-opinion
Oct. 22, 2007, 5:19 p.m.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.
-
julfec286
Oct. 22, 2007, 5:35 p.m.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!
-
julfec286
Oct. 22, 2007, 6:07 p.m.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.
The first 25 comments are shown. Show all 26 comments »
Submit a Story
Advertisement
