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The growing garbage and landfill problems the country faces represent an energy resource just waiting to be tapped.
And it's about to happen, says Lou Circeo, director of plasma research at the Georgia Tech Research Institute since 1991.
"Municipal solid waste is perhaps the largest renewable energy resource that is available to us (and it) could not only solve the garbage and landfill problems in the United States and elsewhere, but it could significantly alleviate the energy crisis," Circeo told the Associated Press.
Circeo, who has been a champion of plasma arc technology for 35 years, says at last a contract has been signed for construction of the first U.S. plasma arc gasification facility, expected to open within the next two years in St. Lucie County, Fla.
The trash torch is being built and financed by Geoplasma, an Atlanta-based subsidiary of Jacoby Development, the company that bought the old steel mill site, a heap of an eyesore, and oversaw its transformation into Atlantic Station. Circeo is listed on Geoplasma's Web site as the company's principal research scientist and GTRI is credited as "one of the leading plasma arc technology research institutions and a longtime partner committed to technical oversight on Geoplasma projects."
Geoplasma touts its capabilities as "waste destruction at the speed of lightning with energy to spare." A plasma arc can reach temperatures of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, so intense that solid waste in landfills can be gasified and thus produce a substitute for natural gas. Another byproduct is an obsidian-like stone, which can be sold and used in paving projects.
The St. Lucie County facility is expected to annihilate 3,000 tons of garbage a day. The synthetic gas will provide power for as many as 100,000 homes annually.
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