Garbage In – Garbage InChanging the way we think about trash

Promise C. CeasarNovember 25, 2014

Why think about trash…

• The average American will throw out roughly 2,700 tons of trash in their lifetime.

• What happens to that trash?

• Most MSW (municipal solid waste) ends up in a landfill or combusted for energy.

• Construction debris is landfilled or recycled.

• In most cities and states, house hold hazardous waste (paint, aerosols, fertilizer, pesticides etc) is collected at HHW events for proper packaging and disposal.

Average Composition of Trash

City of Chicago, 2009

http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/doe/general/RecyclingAndWasteMgmt_PDFs/WasteAndDiversionStudy/ImageThree.jpg

What about RCRA regulated waste?

Before RCRA, hazardous waste was thrown away…

• Either in landfills

• Poured down the drain

• Abandoned somewhere

• Dumped in the oceans, rivers or lakes.

Lack of regulation lead to..Land and groundwater contaminated with various chemicals that are

extremely hazardous to human and ecological health. These contaminated sites lead to the creation of CERCLA, or Superfund in 1980. There are more

than 1,700 listed Superfund sites in the US.

Hastings, Nebraska-Groundwater contaminated by landfill.

Photo by Fritz Hoffmann National Geographic “Superfund” by Paul Voosen December 2014

Monterey Park, California-Superfund Landfill Photo by Fritz Hoffmann National Geographic “Superfund” by Paul Voosen

December 2014

How much hazardous waste do we produce?

In 2005 the U.S produced more than 44 million tons of hazardous waste

• 23 million tons were landfilled or recycled

• 3.1 millions tons were disposed of through combustion

• Some wastes that meet the RCRA definitions of solid and hazardous wastes are specifically excluded or exempted from the hazardous waste regulations

• Some oil and gas exploration and mining wastes are excluded

• Household hazardous waste is also exempt.

Sources: www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/tsd/ldr/f99043.pdf

2005 National Biennial RCRA Hazardous Waste Report, December 2006, EPA530-R-06-006.

Photo by Fritz Hoffmann National Geographic “Superfund” by Paul Voosen December 2014

Photo by Fritz Hoffmann National Geographic “Superfund” by Paul Voosen December 2014

Could There Be A Better Way To Get Rid Of Our Trash & Cleanup

Our Superfund Sites?I think there is….

Plasma Gasification For Municipal Solid & Hazardous Waste Disposal

A New Era of Waste Disposal

So…What is Plasma Gasification?

I NEED FUEL!!!

Plasma gasification is a process which converts organic matter into synthetic gas, electricity, and slag using plasma.

A plasma torch powered by an electric arc is used to ionize gas and catalyze organic matter into synthetic gas and solid waste (slag).

Back to the Future Universal Pictures (A Robert Zemeckis Film)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification

More specifically…

• Man made plasma is formed by shooting an electric current across an electrode assembly, thereby ionizing an inert gas—sometimes nitrogen, sometimes just plain air.

• The interaction of the gas with the electric arc dissociates the gas into electrons and ions, and causes its temperature to increase significantly, often exceeding 6,000°C (10,832°F)

• When garbage passes through the stream of plasma its molecular bonds are torn apart, leaving behind syngas consisting mostly of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, and a solid slag that resembles obsidian.

Source:http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/plasma-converter.htm

Drawing of plasma torchSource: Westinghouse Plasma

Picture of a Plasma Torch Source: Westinghouse Plasma

Example of a gasification unit

Source: Westinghouse Plasma

The Maharashtra Enviro Power Ltd. (“MEPL”) plant processes hazardous wastes from over 30 industries in India. The owner of the plant, SMSIL, is a partner of Westinghouse Plasma Corp. and together the companies offer plasma gasification into the Indian market.

Location: Mepl, Pune, India

Owner: SMSIL

Capacity: 72 tpd

Feedstock: Hazardous Waste

Commissioned: 2009

Output & Configuration: Power – Boiler

Source: http://www.westinghouse-plasma.com/projects/

http://www.westinghouse-plasma.com/environmental_performance/

Examples of Slag

Constituents of the SlagSource: Westinghouse Plasma Corp.

Criticisms of Plasma Gasification of MSW & Hazardous Waste

• “That obsidian-like slag contains toxic heavy metals and breaks down when exposed to water," claims Brad Van Guilder, a scientist at the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which advocates for clean air and water. "Dump it in a landfill, and it could one day contaminate local groundwater.”

• Others wonder about the cleanliness of the syngas. "In the cool-

down phases, the components in the syngas could re-form into toxins," warns Monica Wilson, the international coordinator for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, in Berkeley, California.

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2007-03/prophet-garbage

Pick your Poison…As of now, we don’t have a way of making toxic substances not toxic. This technology, while not perfect, is far better than the traditional alternatives.

Sources

http://www.no-burn.org/downloads/Burning%20Public%20Money%20GAIA%202011_2.pdf

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/06/confessions-of-a-trash-tourist-india/373118/

http://energy.cleartheair.org.hk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ecovalley-hokkaido-plasma-lessons-learned.pd

http://alfaenergysolutions.com/home/the-biproduct/

M. Romero, M.S. Hernández-Crespo, J.Ma. Rincón. Leaching behaviour of a glassy slag and derived glass-ceramics from arc-plasma vitrification of hospital wastesAdvances y Applied Ceramicc, 108 (2009) 1, 67-71; DOI: 10.1179/174367608x366337

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2007-03/prophet-garbage

http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/tsd/ldr/f99043.pdf

http://blog.heritage-enviro.com/blog/how-are-hazardous-waste-landfills-designed-and-managed

http://www.netl.doe.gov/research/coal/energy-systems/gasification/gasifipedia/low-emissions

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/plasma-converter.htm

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/06/confessions-of-a-trash-tourist-india/373118/

http://www.netl.doe.gov/research/Coal/energy-systems/gasification/gasifipedia/westinghouse

http://www.seas.columbia.edu/earth/wtert/sofos/nawtec/nawtec18/nawtec18-3515.pdf

National Geographic December 2014 “Superfund” by Paul Voosen, Photo by Fritz Hoffmann