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Frequently Asked Questions
Technology Process Description
Q: The system needs a means to segregate usable waste either at the residential, transfer station, or disposal facility level. What are the plans with regard to that? Will the facility consume all/most captively generated wastes (office, sewage, lunchroom, maintenance, etc.)?
A: Energy would prefer a public/private venture whereby the public part of the operation is to collect, separate and deliver Refuse Derived Fuel to our facility. There are other approaches that can be considered.
Our process can accept sewage and waste water.
Regular trash from offices, etc are basically what we are after.
Our gasification process can accept organic materials as well as petroleum originated products such as plastic, tires, waste oil, etc.
Air issues:
Q: Although reportedly no direct air and water emissions, what about indirect emission and/or malodor problem?
A: Our plant was designed to have the RDF or waste materials placed inside. Our building will be a negative pressure building. The RDF will be dumped inside the building and odors will be contained through the air coming into the building. We will send any air exiting the building through carbon filtration system to remove any odors.
We want this building to operate and function like any other industrial park building - no unsightly storage of materials outside the building and no odors. It will not look like a refinery or a garbage dump. It will look more like the Asian and European WTE facilities which are very attractive.
Q: Flue gas is recycled… Where does the CO2 go?
A: The flue gas is recycled by sending it to the pyrolysis vessel. The Carbon-Oxygen bonds are broken and the CO2 is reformulated into syngas.
Q: 'Nitroxyl' HNO generally occurs as an ion or a radical NO and to out knowledge is not something that would precipitate by itself. We cannot find compound O2CNO in chem databases we also cannont find 'sulfinoxyl'. Are the possibly non-standard terms?
A: The water quench and use of ionized water causes the compounds to form and to precipitate out of the syngas. Sulfinoxyl is a non-standard term by our technology partner to reference these non-leachable compounds.
Final Ash
Q: How tolerant is the system for materials that cannot be gasified? Do they simply come out with the ash?
A: Whatever is not pulled out of the waste stream will come out in the ash if it cannot be gasified. Separation of incoming materials is very important to our process. If you keep the materials that are not useful to the process from going into the plant, it won’t appear in the ash.
Q: Where does it go/what happens to it (ash) if it is not used in “cementatious byproducts”? What kind of cementatious byproducts are we talking about, and have these products been tested and/or actually successfully used?
A: This is basically a fly ash which has been used successfully and commercially viable in road construction concrete and also in fill materials for asphalt and road fill material for decades.
A: Are there any other markets for it?
A: Cement companies are the most likely market. The fly ash fills in voids in the concrete and block and improves its strength. Asphalt companies have also used ash materials in their paving materials. Fly ash has also been used in base materials (gravel) for road construction which is then paved over.
Q: What does “generally not leachable” mean? What analyses have been performed to support this claim? What could potentially leach?
A: Contact with water will not cause the material to break down and go into the ground water. We don’t know of any leachable components that come out of our process.
Q: Is there a preliminary accounting for and chemical analysis of all process wastes even form a bench scale prospective?
A: These exist for numerous gasification processes. Our gasification approach is not that different, except for the fact we recycle the air and water emissions back into the process to continue to remove carbon, hydrogen and oxygen to form more syngas.
Coal to Syngas & By-Products Example
Q: How do the numbers expressed compare to other WTE methods?
A: Our process is much more efficient because of the recycling of the air and water emissions. Rather than release carbon, hydrogen, water vapor, etc. into the atmosphere, we recycle to capture it to form more syngas. Many of the WTE facilities are direct burn facilities which then scrub the emissions. There is a transition to being more efficient and producing syngas from waste which can be burned or turned into electricity. But that is only in the past 10 years or so, and primarily in Japan and Europe. We have taken it to two steps forward to gasify the MSW and then to implement a thorough filtration process to produce an ultra clean syngas which can then be converted to a fuel. The added advantage of zero air and water emissions is a particular advantage we have that other technologies do not offer.
Q: Making ethanol from syngas isn't commercial yet, work is being done [pilots and different approaches] and it's getting close. Gasifying coal to Methanol is fairly common though, so is FT diesel. The question is - how are they going to do it engineering-wise, and how much more does it cost to add it to the system. Will they be contracting and licensing other’s techs or systems?
A: The GTL portion of the plant will be licensed from other technology partners. Our key technology is to gasify, rapid quench and then filter the syngas to produce ultra clean syngas. With an ultra clean syngas, we do not cause downstream operational problems with damaging catalyst with trace sulfur and chlorine. The result is ultra clean syngas, ethanol, methanol or diesel fuel. We will license or bring on partners who have the GTL technology to add to our plants.
Q: Why complicate the system by making ethanol and diesel? Is it price dependent?
A: Producing electricity is fairly easy to do with our clean syngas. You can simply burn it in a reciprocating engine with a generator. The price for electricity is not very attractive, unless we receive some additional tax credits for making energy from MSW. The price for low sulfur diesel fuel and ethanol are much more financially attractive, even though it adds complexity to the system. Our approach is to manufacture our plant in two phases, first to produce electricity and second to produce fuels. This way we are generating income in 12 months by producing electicity, and in 24 months we improve our bottom line by producing a higher paying energy product – ethanol or diesel fuel.
Q: Who owns the technology they are using or even considering for each stage?
A: Our primary technology partner has patented their gasification process with the ionized water quench and filtration system. We will disclose our technical partner at a future meeting. We have several other technology partners for off the shelf equipment such as syngas to electricity and more customized systems GTL technology for syngas to ethanol or low sulfur diesel fuel.
"Ionized steam reformation" – need more detail on what this is. The use of ionized water - We are curious about this aspect of the technology, especially since the common gasification and reforming technologies don't use it. Water can be 'ionized' by adding salts, but this is not stated - just oxygen.
The use of ionized steam is unique to our technology partner. It is not done by adding salts. We will have to go through some discussion face to face to show the significant differences and advantages of this process.
Production Capability 500 Tons Per Day
Q: Are any Energy facilities already up and running? If so:
Where?
How long have they been in operation?
Have the numbers of production been proven/verified?
What problems (operational and otherwise) have been encountered?
A: Our technology partner has three sizes for their facilities. 50, 250 and 500 tons per day.
There are not any Green Energy facilities up and running right now. We are in discussions with several cities around the US about projects ranging from 50 ton per day to multiple 500 ton per day systems.
Our technology partner is completing their first full scale system which is a 250 ton per day system. The first tests should be run in the next 3 months on various feedstock materials.
Q: Byproducts:
How are they managed?
Can they be reduced/minimized?
Are there markets for them?
A: The ash is removed from the pyrolysis vessel through an air lock.
Ash can be minimized by being careful in the sorting phase of the process of the MSW. Keeping out materials which do not have any energy value through gasification will minimize ash.
The quality of the ash is also dependent on the incoming materials. If we do not properly separate out batteries or other electronic waste, those constituent materials will end up in the ash. If we are careful to remove all the materials which may have heavy metals, then that will not end up in the ash.
Next Steps
Q: How much property is needed for these facilities?
A: The building itself takes up about 5 acres. Property around the site for roads, parking, etc, adds another 10 acres.
Q: It would seem best sited at or beside an active landfill or in partnership with an existing disposal company (see bullet #3) Perhaps pair such facilities directly with large generators of select waste materials.
A: Site locations can vary. If there are collection and sorting sites for MSW then being close to that location makes sense. If there are no current sorting and separation facilities, then being close to the landfill would minimize transportation costs.
Site location is important for minimizing handling and transportation if you are receiving trash from long distances by truck, train or barge.
Moving forward…
We would entertain an opportunity to meet with the various organizations that may have an interest in reviewing our business model and technology. We believe that can best be served by several focused meetings:
Technology discussion meeting
Business development meeting
Potential partners in public/private relationships
