Scientific American reports on a technology that proposes to generate energy with little greenhouse gas emissions that may be able to remove existing emissions sources while getting rid of garbage.
A plasma incinerator proposal for St Lucie County could take trash usually dumped into landfills and turn it into energy that powers turbines. The garbage is vaporized into a gas when it is blasted with streams of superheated gas (known as plasma) at temperatures of 10,000 F. Potentially 50,000 homes could be powered by plasma arc gasification, while significantly reducing the methane emissions normally generated from garbage decomposing in landfills.
The plant is scheduled to go online by 2011, processing 1,500 tons of garbage daily and creating an estimated 60 megawatts of electricity, some of which will be used by the incinerator.
Inorganic matter such as aluminum cans could be used as recycled materials.
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