Why this incredible waste? Turns out it is simple economics: it is cheaper for these companies to burn this gas, and pollute the atmosphere than it is to transport it to where it can be used. Perhaps some financial penalties for their polluting actions would help, but Synfuels thinks they’ve found another way to get these companies to clean up their act.

The Fischer-Tropsch Process
The idea has been around for a while. Basically, it allows the natural gas to be converted to a liquid fuel. Synfuels, which licenses its technology from Texas A&M University, claims it can do this better and cheaper than others ($25/barrel of gasoline instead of the typical $35/barrel from the Fischer-Tropsch process).

The company has been fine tuning its process since 2005, but says it is now close to signing its first commercial contract for a plant, potentially near Kuwait City.

Hopefully this will make it economically sensible to collect that natural gas that is being wasted today, and convert it to fuel. Doesn’t help much with the CO2 emissions, but at least the fuel will be burnt to do something useful (hopefully).

[Via Earth2Tech]

Sound too good to be true? Well, it gets better. The amount of energy that can be generated from the fuel produced is actually greater than the amount of energy it takes for the machine to process the garbage. So, not only does this prevent waste from going into landfills, and provide fuel and raw materials for construction, if used to produce electricity, it generates more energy than the process uses.

The Process
The trash to be processed first processed to remove anything that can be easily recycled (e.g. cans and bottles). Things like batteries which have been thrown in the trash rather the recycled correctly, can also be removed at this stage by centrifuge sorting. The remainder is then shredded ready to be added to the plasma gasification system.

As it enters the first stage of the machine, the pre-gasifier, steam and oxygen are injected into the shredded waste resulting in some gasification. The partially processed waste then drops through to the next step: the plasma chamber. At the bottom of the plasma chamber is a molten glass bath. In the plasma chamber, the waste is heated by a plasma arc, which reach temperatures hotter than 10,000°C. At that temperature, the bonds between the molecules break and the elements can be recombined into useful materials. Inorganic compounds are dissolved into the glass bath; metals can be drained off at the bottom for recycling, the remainder stay in the glass, which is ejected from the machine slowly while it works and can be used to create a range of construction products.

Most of the material fed into the system though is converted into synthesis gas. That gas is cleaned and can then be converted to hydrogen, ethanol or other fuels.

Heavy Metals & Other Chemicals
What happens if heavy metals like mercury, or toxic chemicals are added to the machine in the mix of trash? Well, according to InEnTec, the high temperatures of the plasma arc are capable of breaking down the bonds in most harmful chemicals rendering them safe. The heavy metals, like cadmium and mercury, that might find their way into the system are drained off so that the glass ejected from the machine contains at most only traces of these elements.

Slate has more information about plasma gasification.