Gasification / Pyrolysis of Trash

It's not our usual fare at SMF but there's newly emerging technology for waste management that's making the scene. It doesn't seem to be one of those pie in the sky things. There's a fair chance that this could become the standard way of dealing with municipal solid waste over the next few decades. It's worth being aware of because it might change things so much. There might be little need for landfills or traditional incinerators anymore. It would probably affect how recycling of paper and plastic products is done as well. Those industries could become obsolete.

Anyhow ... the gasification plants are already in operation in some places around the world. Others are being built as we speak. As with anything new ... the test of it's merit will be if it works over a long period of time. It will have to prove itself worthwhile.

Here's a scholarly link. The gasification process can be done different ways depending on what they want the end products to be. It's all chemistry and different reactions happening at the molecular level.

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/59269

A Google search of " Gasification of MSW " will turn up results that are easier to understand.

~ One man's trash is another man's treasure. ~

I was talking with a sales representative from one of the companies that sells this gasification technology last year. Of course ... you have to consider the source but he was saying that they could handle the EPA approvals and have small plant built at a modest cost. I explained the different reasons for why it didn't make sense at the local level. You need the economy of scale. Instead of serving a few municipalities ... they needed the feedstock from a hundred or more.

It was weird because about six months later ... that's pretty much what someone did. We signed contracts with the new facility last month.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. We expect that there will be a few problems to iron out along the way but it might pan out. It would be a blessing if it did. Our landfills are projected to fill up and reach end of life in another five years.

The balloon bag vehicles are part of the story. I've always been into wood as a fuel because it's locally available and only 1/20 th. the cost to heat with in the wintertime as opposed to fuel oil. That led into studying the pyrolysis of wood to produce a fuel that's similar to natural gas.

It's amazing really ... during WW2 ... there were over a million vehicles in Europe running on coal or wood because gas & diesel were in such short supply.

If anyone has a little time ... this one is worth a watch. The producers did a pretty good job of explaining the history of it all. ( They explained the gas bags as well. )

Worth the watch Hills, I enjoyed the video.

Always wanted to build a wood gas producer but diesel cut 50/50 with waste cooking oil is more convenient. Of late have noticed my waste oil resources are dwindling. People are mixing the oil with feed for poultry livestock, then there's the company's that purchase the used oil with regular pick up.

Engines running on wood gas not much information on carburetion, from my observations the pump jack engines in the oil field running on well gas all use Impco