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How Plasma Converters Work

By: Jonathan Strickland

Remember the scene in Back to the

Future where Doc Brown throws garbage
into Mr. Fusion, powering his time
machine? While household fusion is still in
the realm of science fiction, we might be
closer than you think to generating
Plasma torches. See more green living
pictures. electricity for our homes using trash, and
PHOTO COURTESY PYROGENESIS © plasma waste converters will do the job.
2006

At the most basic level, a plasma waste

converter is a plasma torch applied to garbage. A plasma torch uses a gas and
powerful electrodes to create plasma, sometimes called the fourth state of matter.
Plasma is an ionized gas; in other words, it's a gas with free-roaming electrons
that carries a current and generates a magnetic field. On Earth, we can see
natural displays of plasma fields in lightning. The temperatures generated by a
plasma torch can be hotter than the surface of the sun (more than 6,000 degrees
Celsius).

At these temperatures, garbage doesn't

stand a chance. Molecules break down in a
process called molecular dissociation.
When molecules are exposed to intense
energy (like the heat generated by a
plasma torch), the molecular bonds holding
PyroGenesis Plasma Arc waste
disposal system them together become excited and break
PHOTO COURTESY OF
apart. What's left are the elemental
PYROGENESIS ©2006
components of the molecules. With
cyanide, for example, you'll end up with
atoms of carbon and nitrogen.
Organic molecules (those that are carbon-based) become volatilized, or turn into
gases. This synthetic gas (syngas) can be used as a fuel source if properly
cleaned. Inorganic compounds melt down and become vitrified, or converted into
a hard, glassy substance similar in appearance and weight to obsidian. Metals
melt down as well, combining with the rest of the inorganic matter (called slag).

Unlike incinerators, which use combustion to break down garbage, there is no

burning, or oxidation, in this process. The heat from plasma converters causes
pyrolysis, a process in which organic matter breaks down and decomposes.
Plasma torches can operate in airtight vessels. Combustion requires oxidization;
pyrolysis does not.

Plasma waste converters can treat almost any kind of waste, including some
traditionally difficult waste materials. It can treat medical waste or chemically-
contaminated waste and leave nothing but gases and slag. Because it breaks
down these dangerous wastes into their basic elements, they can be disposed of
safely. The only waste that a plasma converter can't break down is heavy
radioactive material, such as the rods used in a nuclear reactor. If you put such
material in a plasma furnace, it would probably catch on fire or even explode.

In the upcoming sections, we will look at what makes up a typical plasma waste
converter, examine the byproducts produced from the gasification process, and
discuss the benefits and concerns about plasma converters.

Thank You
Thanks to Dr. Louis Circeo of Georgia Tech, Dr.
Hilburn Hillestad and Crinu Baila of GeoPlasma and
Bill Haynes of Energy Systems Group for their
assistance with this article.

Plasma Converter Parts

Currently, plasma plants aren't standardized. Many different companies are

designing plasma facilities, and for the moment each facility is essentially custom-
built. Still, most converters have the following components in common:
 Conveyor system
In order to feed garbage into the
converter, almost all plasma facilities have
a conveyor system. Garbage is loaded on
the conveyor and is pushed into the
furnace (or pre-treatment system if the
plasma facility uses one) by a plunger.

Pre-treatment mechanism
Although a plasma torch can break down
waste without any special pre-treatment,
most plasma facilities employ some sort of pre-treatment process to make the
entire system more efficient. Some designs use grinders or crushers to reduce the
size of the individual pieces of garbage before moving in to the furnace. The
plasma torch can break down the smaller pieces faster.

Furnace
Here's where the magic happens.
Furnaces have an airlock system to allow
garbage to come in while preventing the
hot gases in the furnace from escaping into
the atmosphere. The furnace houses at
least one plasma torch; many furnaces
have multiple torches to break down all the
matter. These torches are usually placed a
little lower than halfway down the furnace.
The furnace also features a drainage
system to tap off the slag as it accumulates
and a vent system to vent out the gases. In
order to withstand the intense heat,
furnaces are lined with refractory material
and often have a water-cooling system as well.

Plasma torch
The plasma torches used in these facilities are custom-built. The amount of
energy they consume, the lifespan of the electrodes it uses, the gas used for
ionization (most torches just use ordinary air), the downtime it takes to replace an
offline torch and the size of the plasma field it generates all depend on the specific
manufacturer. Plasma torches are water-cooled.

In the next section we'll take a look at slag drainage and the afterburners.

Municipal Solid Waste

This article focuses on the plasma gasification of
municipal solid waste (MSW), the industry term for
what we normally refer to as garbage or trash.

Slag Drainage and Afterburners

Molten slag pools at the bottom of the

furnace and helps maintain the high
temperature inside the gasification
chamber. Occasionally slag must be
drained from the furnace. Some furnaces
have drains positioned at a certain height,
others use a tap system. Either way, slag
drains away from the furnace and cools in
a separate chamber.

Gas ventilation
The furnace also has a vent system to
allow gasified components to pass into
another part of the system (either an afterburner or a gas cleaning chamber).

Afterburner
Gases can pass through a secondary chamber where natural gas flames combust
any remaining organic material in the gases.
 These extremely hot gases then pass
through a Heat Recovery Steam
Generator (HRSG) system, where they
heat water to form steam. This steam then
turns a steam turbine to create electricity.

Syngas cleaning
Alternatively, the gases from the furnace
enter a chamber where they are cooled
and scrubbed, usually by water. The gases
pass through a spray of water, which
scrubs the gases of pollutants and
particulates. A filter system containing a
base filter neutralizes acid gases. The
acids in the gases and the bases in the
filter combine to form inert salts. The cooled and clean gases continue through the
system, which in most cases involves a gas turbine connected to an electricity
generator. Some systems also harness the heat from these gases to generate
steam, similar to the afterburner method mentioned above.

If the plant uses an afterburner, the

remaining gases must be cleaned
thoroughly to get rid of any hazardous
material. Many designs include a dry
scrubber system. In this system, powdered
carbon is injected into the gases to strip
away mercury, a poisonous element.
Gases also pass through a fabric or bag
filter to remove any other dangerous
particulates, like lead. Once the gases
have been cleaned they move to the stack,
where they are released into the
atmosphere.
Plasma Converter Byproducts
 There are three main byproducts that are
a result of the plasma gasification process:
synthetic gas (syngas), slag and heat.
Let''s look at each of these byproducts in
more detail.

Syngas is a mixture of several gases but

mainly comprises hydrogen and carbon
Molten slag draining from a plasma
furnace monoxide. It can be used as a fuel source,
PHOTO COURTESY PYROGENESIS © and some plants use it to both provide
2006
power for the plant and sell excess
electricity to the power grid. Garbage
contains a great deal of potential energy; the gasification process enables
engineers to convert the potential energy into electrical energy.

How much gas is generated by a plasma converter? That depends on what you
put into the furnace. If the garbage contains a lot of carbon-based material (in
other words, organic waste), then you'll get more gas. Waste with a lot of
inorganic material won''t yield as much gas. Because of this, some plasma
facilities sort through garbage before feeding it into the system.

The solid byproduct from the gasification process is called slag. The weight and
volume of the original waste material is dramatically reduced. According to Dr.
Circeo of Georgia Tech's Plasma Department:

The weight of the slag is about 20 percent of the weight of the original
waste
The volume of the slag is about 5 percent that of the original waste''s
volume

The slag can take different forms depending on how you cool it.

If slag is air-cooled, it forms black, glassy rocks that

look and feel like obsidian, which can be used in
concrete or asphalt. Molten slag can be funneled into
brick or paving stone molds and then air cool into
ready-to-use construction material.
 If you were to blow compressed air through a stream
Metal nodules can be
separated from the sand of this molten material, you'd end up with rock wool.
Rock wool has the appearance of gray cotton candy.
It''s light and wispy, and according to Dr. Circeo, it has
the potential to revolutionize the plasma waste
treatment industry. Rock wool is a very efficient
insulation material, twice as effective as fiberglass. It's

Water-cooled slag forms

also lighter than water, but very absorbent. Because
sand of this, it could potentially be used to help contain and
clean oil spills in the ocean. Cleanup crews could
spread rock wool over and around an oil spill. The
rock wool would float on the water while soaking up
the oil, making collection a relatively easy process.
Hydroponic growing systems can also use rock wool -
- farmers can plant seeds in slabs or blocks of it.

Air-cooled slag forms Currently rock wool is produced by mining rocks,

rocks like this
melting them down and then streaming the molten
material onto spinning machines. The spinning
machines fling strands of molten material in the air.
Today, the price of rock wool is over a dollar a pound.
Since rock wool would be a byproduct of the plasma
gasification process, it could be sold for as little as 10
Rock wool
cents a pound. The price of insulation would
PHOTO COURTESY
GEORGIA TECH decrease, efficiencies in energy-saving techniques
RESEARCH INSTITUTE
would increase and plasma gasification plants would
have another substantial source of income apart from
selling electricity back to the grid.

Plasma technology experts, including Dr. Circeo, assert that the slag is virtually
unleachable, meaning that any hazardous materials are inert and will not dissolve
out of the slag.

The heat created by plasma facilities is considerable, measured in thousands of

degrees Centigrade. Heat from the molten slag helps maintain the temperature
within the furnace. Some of the heat from gases can be used to convert water into
steam, which in turn can turn steam turbines to generate electricity.­

Waste treatment through gasification is unique in that it not only gets rid of
garbage and generates electricity, it also produces byproducts that are valuable
commodities themselves. In the next section, we'll talk about existing and future
plasma plants and pioneering companies in this technology.
Plasma Gasification Facilities

Currently, there are only two commercial

plasma plants that process MSW, and
they are both in Japan. In 1999, Hitachi
Metals commissioned a pilot plant in
Yoshii, Japan. This plant was modest,
processing less than 30 tons per day of
MSW. The successful operation of the
The Mihama-Mikata plasma facility
PHOTO COURTESY GEORGIA TECH plant spurred the development of two
RESEARCH INSTITUTE other plants within Japan. The pilot
program ended in 2004, and Hitachi
Metals decommissioned the plant.

The plant at Mihama-Mikata industrial park began operations in 2002. This plant
can process up to 24 tons per day of MSW and four tons per day of wastewater
treatment plant sludge. Because the plant is relatively small, it doesn't produce
syngas for fuel. It does produce steam and hot water, however, which is used both
for power and heat generation in the industrial park. The plant uses a water
cooling system for the molten slag and separates the metal nodules to sell as
scrap. The sand is mixed with concrete and used in paving stones.

The plasma gasification plant in Utashinai,

Japan also began processing MSW in
2002. The original design of the plant
factored in a capacity of around 170 tons
per day of MSW and automobile
shredder residue (ASR). Today the plant
processes approximately 300 tons per day.
 The plant generates up to 7.9 megawatt-
Eco Valley Utashinai Plasma Facility
PHOTO COURTESY WESTINGHOUSE hours (MWh) of electricity, selling about 4.3
PLASMA CORPORATION
MWh back to the power grid.

Plasma gasification is also used for specialized waste handling projects. In

Bordeaux, France, plants designed by Europlasma are used to melt asbestos or
vitrify fly ash, particulates that are a result of using incinerators to destroy waste.
Fly ash can contain hazardous materials and traditionally have been stored in
specialized landfills. Using a plasma torch facility, Europlasma can convert the
ash into slag, where the heavy metals and other hazardous materials are
rendered inert.

Future Facilities
A demonstration facility Israel built by Environmental Energy Resources, Ltd. is
scheduled to be converted into a commercial waste treatment facility. Russia has
also expressed an interest in plasma gasification facilities, and currently uses
plasma plants to treat low level nuclear waste in a plant outside of Moscow.

In the United States, Atlanta-based firm GeoPlasma is working with St. Lucie
County in Florida to build and operate a plasma gasification plant. This plant
would process all of the incoming waste for the county and begin to mine the
existing landfill for waste. Once it is built, the facility will be able to process up to
1,000 tons of garbage per day and generate 67 MWh a day, with a net output of
33 MWh.

GeoPlasma has created a modular design for the plant, with two large plasma
gasification chambers that will handle 500 tons per day. The modular design
allows further expansion in the future – the proposed plan is to increase capacity
to 3,000 tons of waste per day within a few years of operation. Engineers project
that within 18 years, the existing landfill will be completely mined and treated. The
electricity generated by the plant will be more than enough to power the 98,000
homes in the county.

Many areas across the nation are beginning to look into plasma gasification as a
way to approach waste management. Several companies such as GeoPlasma,
StarTech, Recovered Energy, Inc. and Plasco Energy Group are pioneers in
bringing this technology into commercial use. Assuming the St. Lucie County
project is a success, we may see more of these facilities commissioned across
the nation soon.

Plasma arc technology has been used in various fields for decades. Experiments
using plasma for waste management began in the 1980s. With all the benefits of
plasma converters, why are we just now seeing these facilities being built? In the
next section, we'll look at why it has taken decades for this technology to go from
experimentation to implementation.

Megawatt-Hours
The megawatt-hour (MWh) is a unit of measurement for
energy. It's equal to 1,000,000 watts operating for 1
hour. A typical clothes dryer requires about 5.6 kilowatt-
hours (or 5,600 watt-hours). One megawatt-hour could
power that dryer for more than 178 hours without
stopping.

Plasma Converter Challenges

Plasma waste facilities have had several

obstacles to overcome. First, they are a
new technology. As Dr. Circeo points out, it
can take many years for a new technology
to go from discovery to commercial use.
Sometimes this gap seems to coincide

A typical landfill rather conveniently with the expiration of

the initial patent on the idea. New
technologies are also expensive; almost
every plasma application requires a custom built facility. Until facility production
can be standardized, costs will be high for plasma plants.

Aside from the cost of custom building the plant, other costs are a major factor.
Until very recently, land costs were so low that it was cheaper to use landfills than
it would be to design, build and maintain a plasma waste facility. Environmental
concerns often take a back seat to economic realities, and it wasn't until tipping
fees (the fee you have to pay to have garbage hauled to landfills) increased and
landfill space decreased that plasma plants became economically feasible. Even
in an ecologically-concerned culture, some companies don't focus on the
environmental aspect for their business model. GeoPlasma, for example,
positions itself as a power facility that uses a renewable resource for fuel. Dr.
Hillestad of GeoPlasma asserts that by focusing on GeoPlasma's ability to
produce electricity for low costs makes it a viable operation.

Waste management is big business. Any major revolution in waste management

faces critics and opposition from those that benefit from the status quo. As
environmental pressures increase (both from the perspective of waste
management and that of renewable sources for fuel), city and county
governments are more willing to explore alternate strategies to handle waste.

Making Plasma Plants Profitable

Plasma waste treatment facilities are becoming more cost effective, however.
Because a plasma plant can generate revenue beyond tipping fees, they can
competitively price tipping fees to make it cheaper to ship garbage to the facility
than a landfill. As plasma facilities are standardized, tipping fees will continue to
decrease.

With the right capacity, a plasma plant can generate enough syngas to run an
engine or gas turbine and generate electricity. A 1,000 ton per day plant can
generate enough electricity to power the plant itself and still have plenty of power
to sell back to the grid.

The hot gases can be used to generate steam, which can turn steam turbines for
electricity or be used to generate heat for the plant and other facilities.

Slag can be sold in any of its forms. The rock form can be used as gravel or
molded into bricks. Sand can be mixed with concrete and used in various paving
and construction projects. Rock wool can be used for insulation or to contain
dangerous oil spills. The St. Lucie County plant will produce 12 tons per day of
vitrified slag (from 1,000 tons of waste). If the molten slag is cooled by water,
metal nodules can be separated from the slag and sold for scrap. The St. Lucie
facility is expected to produce about 4 tons per day.

We'll look at what the future may hold for plasma gasification technology next.

The Future of Plasma Waste Converters

Dr. Hillestad of GeoPlasma calls the

present the "perfect storm" for plasma
gasification technology. With focus
increasing daily on mankind's
environmental impact and the growing
concern to look to renewable energy
resources, plasma plants are well
positioned to become an important part of
how we generate power and deal with
waste.

Potential uses for this technology (apart from new plasma waste treatment plants)
include:

In-situ facilities
Dr. Circeo proposes the creation of a portable plasma gasification system to treat
existing landfills without building an entire plant. Instead of a stationary furnace
and gas treatment facility, he suggests boring holes into existing landfills, sticking
a plasma torch into the hole, and capping the hole with a gas capture system. The
landfill itself would act as the furnace vessel. Since plasma gasification is not a
combustion process, the landfill contents would either gasify or vitrify, with no
danger of fire.

Co-location with existing power plants

Another option that would significantly reduce the price of a plasma plant is the
co-location of the plasma gasification chamber with a pre-existing power facility.
Because the amount of gases produced by plasma plants is relatively small when
compared to coal or oil-fired power plants, the power generators in plasma plants
are smaller and less efficient (larger generators require much more gas). Coal and
oil power plants use the same processes as plasma plants to treat gases and
generate power. By connecting a line from a plasma gasification furnace to a coal
or oil furnace, you eliminate the need for a plasma plant's gas treatment
equipment, which make up approximately 50 percent of the overall cost of building
a plasma waste treatment facility. The gases from the plasma furnace would
combine with the gases in the coal or oil furnace. The relatively clean gases from
the plasma furnace would help boost efficiency and reduce the amount of coal or
oil needed to generate power.

Decontamination
The intense heat from plasma torches can completely neutralize the hazardous
components found in diseased livestock or contaminated soil. Engineers could
transport modular, portable plasma facilities to dispose of animal carcasses or
treat soil on site. Incineration of such hazardous material doesn't always destroy
all the contaminates, or produces ash that is also hazardous waste. Plasma
gasification would destroy or render inert any harmful material.

To learn more about plasma waste converters, check out the links on the next
page.

Lots More Information

Related HowStuffWorks Articles

How Plasma Cutters Work
How Landfills Work
How Power Grids Work
How Sewer and Septic Systems Work

More Great Links

GeoPlasma
Plasco Energy Group
StarTech
EuroPlasma
Hitachi Metals

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