hunterbishop.com

Oahu passed on it a few years back:

"Questions about the cost of using plasma arc technology arose four years ago when the director of Honolulu's Department of Environmental Services reported to the City Council that the technology "would significantly increase the cost of waste disposal for Oahu and would not provide any environmental advantages to justify such cost."

http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/othercities/pacific/stories/2008/06/02/story1.html?b=1212379200%5E1643489&page=3

These plasma gasification plants have been running in Japan for over 5 years. Plasco has just finished running their test on the demo plant and have a proposal before the Ottawa city counsel to build a 400 tonne a day plant. this plant will be approved in July.
The only cost to the city are the tipping fees.
I need to say that Plasco's plant runs so clean that it doesn't require a smokestack, also the demo plant is providing power to about 3600 homes on about 75 tonnes of thrash.
Thanh You
Don Wright

...yet another 'blackbox' technology: put a stinking problem in on end and get a rosy solution out the other.
It will do everything claimed.
Whether it will not do anything disclaimed is another matter.

Re-duce, Re-use, Re-cycle.

The only reason private companies are willing to build these plants is that they are profitably. They are even willing to freeze the tipping fees.

The only reason any company is goin to do anythin is because it is profitable.

Profit = Revenue minus Cost.

The revenue is in the market.

The cost is in the details -- someone is going to pay. There is NO FREE LUNCH. And, 'cost' most definitely includes cost you can't see now that the operator doesn't pay and the community does pay sooner or later.

It only takes 20% to 25% of the power produced to run the plant. The remaining power is sold to the grid. Other profit comes from the tipping fees the city normally pays to the land fill operator.There is also a profit in the slag and other materials that are recovered.Most of the contracts that have been offered have agreed to freeze the tipping fees for up to 20 years. In St Lucie Co FL GEOPlasma has not only agreed to share profits with St Lucie Co they have agreed to post a 5 million dollar bond that St Lucie can use to tear the plant down if the plant does not live up to expectations. As you can see, no one is looking for a free lunch, there is a lot of profit in this. Customers will continue to pay for their power and their tipping fees as they do now.

Plasma Arc and TDP are expensive to build. The profit comes from the selling power with Plasma, and making oil and fertilizer with TDP. We would recycle more if we didn't have so many regulations that stop damn near any innovation. So what do we tell innovators. It has to be perfect. You must make govt/environmentalist/special interests/unions,and waste management lobbyist happy. Price and environment are the only things that matter. Environmental impact is the first concern. I worked in in waste management and profit is all that mattered. So what ever they suggest is immediately suspect.Wheelabrator is an example. They were owned and operated by WM. If we want to use tax money correctly, lets loan money to local recyclers that produce products we use daily. we can regrind and injection mold PET (water bottle) into new product. We can melt and bake mold other mixed regrind. We can produce soil for Kona. WE can partially power these with waste methane.WE need vision not higher taxes. James this is really you arena. I'd really like to HEAR(correction noted) your suggestions. Hopefully there are less mistakes in grammar and punctuation.
your suggestions.

Aloha Brian,
You raise two issue as possible constraints to recycling:
regulations and money.

"...would recycle more if we didn't have so many regulations..." and "...loan money to local recyclers..."

Certainly, opportunities to finance local businesses doing re-use and recycling is something we need to know more about.
And, regulatory impediments need to be corrected (e.g., as of now, agricultural land can only be used to make compost of material generated on that land, such as, tree trimmings and manure but not for making compost from materials brought on to the land).

Still, not sure either of the above is the largest constraint.

For real, education about the why, what, where, when and how of recycling, has not been well supported by this Mayor or any Council. Lots of talk about recycling but never the commitment of a major priority.

Maybe we should require the mayor and council members to visit places like Micronesia where their islands are so tiny that the trash is floating in the ocean.

James anyone who reads this blog knows we don't agree on everything. Hell maybe 50-50 would be a stretch. One thing we do agree on is recycling. We'll argue about the methods I'm sure. The other is probably alternative energy. If you want a solar powered home you get 2 electrical inspections. The engineer for solar charges more by and large than the regular electrical engineer. Same for solar powered plumbed hot water. If a man is an electrical engineer low voltage application and power inversion are not to difficult to grasp. Yet we charge the environmentally responsible citizen out the a@#. Same for the plumber a high pressure relief valve is the same on a roof tank as it is in your laundry room. Another example of needless regulation. But as you've noted before, I digress. Used injection molders/extruders, and molds are cheap. We have a built in Ag/Nursery market for planting pots. tomato sticks,plastic sheets to block grass and weed intrusion, and planter stands of plastic wood. Albezia fiber and recycled plastic make a great lumber substitute. We have the opportunity of a life time to make a profit,be self sufficient, and recycle.

Brian, we built a "solar powered home" -- 80-gallon solar water heater and 3.5kw PhotoVoltaic electricity.

And, we did NOT have the exceptional problems with inspections you mention. HELCO special inspection for the PV system cost $0. County Building Dept Electrical and Plumbing Code inspections were no different than would have been without any solar.

I've no experience with plastic manufacture, but, as I understand, you are correct when you say, "...injection molders/extruders, and molds are cheap."
Why are you not in this business?
You seem to know a lot about it.

Plasma Arc has been around for years. GE makes the Plasma Diodes and a typical use for these has been to melt steel for foundries. These diodes are capable of producing what has been described as "lightening in a bottle" they are able to create a Plasma Arc that is between 12000-14000 degrees F. Each diode consumes about 2.5 MWh each (thats enough for 2500 homes).
Jacoby has been to South Florida where he has promised to build a $450 million dollar plant in the St. Lucie area

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-09-fla-county-trash_x.htm.

The diodes work great they will vaporize anything that gets in their path.The problem with these systems is they are net energy consumers. I have never seen supportive data that shows these systems to be sustainable. They promise they can create enough syngas to supply elctricity to the diodes and then sell 20-30 MW's per hour to the grid but none of these systems have come close. Ask the people in Japan and they will tell you they have to provide additional energy to produce enough power to keep the diodes going.
I have it on good authority three weeks ago his entire engineering team just went to work for a different company because they could not make enough syngas to sustain the system. Call him up ask him.

Actually I've looked into a business loan recently. I'm not sure whats up, but a business loan all of the sudden is hard to get. I have a superb credit rating. I guess the mortgage crisis is not helping small business. The used molder is easy to get. We'll see.