74 year old Joseph Longo, founder and CEO of Startech Environmental Corporation, is fast becoming known as “The Prophet of Garbage” because he has developed a Plasma Converter that can turn the world’s most dangerous and toxic waste into clean usable energy.
This promising new technology straight out of Star Trek holds out the promise of making landfills and other troublesome toxic storage sites a thing of the past and with further research and development become a viable alternative energy source for homes, transportation and space travel.
Startech’s trash converter uses superheated plasma to reduce garbage to its molecuar components. Longo’s multimillion dollar technological marvel dubbed the “Plasma Converter” has taken almost 20 years to design and build and can fit easily within a space the size of a two-car garage. Yet, it has the capability to consume almost any kind of waste or toxic product through a process called plasma gasification.
This annilhilation process is described like something similar to the the big bang, only in reverse in that you get nothing from something, instead of something out of nothing. Inside a sealed vessel made of stainless steel and filled with a stable gas — either pure nitrogen or, as in this case, ordinary air — a 650-volt current passing between two electrodes rips electrons from the air, converting the gas into plasma. Current flows continuously through this newly formed plasma, , creating a field of extremely intense energy very much like lightning. The radiant energy of the plasma arc is so powerful, it disintegrates trash into its constituent elements by tearing apart molecular bonds.
The by-products are an obsidian-like glass used as a raw material for numerous applications, including bathroom tiles and high-strength asphalt, and a synthesis gas, or “syngas”– a mixture of primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be converted into a variety of marketable fuels, including ethanol, natural gas and hydrogen. The only type of waste that it cannot break down is nuclear waste since the radiation is already in its natural atomic state.
To learn more about this new technology go to Popular Science Magazine and read Michael Behar’s fascinating article on the subject (The Prophet of Garbage). The potential for this is staggering in its scope.
Super geek cool!
Still waiting for Sharks with frackin lazer beams… 😛
I believe this has already either been tried or calculated. The result being that no significant amount of trash can be injected without cooling off the plasma too quickly.Therefore too slow to keep up with our production of waste. Fluidized bed reactors work a bit faster but are still too slow. Both also require significant pre-processing before injection.
Big – Deal. A disintegrater beam. I bet that will drive the value of recycling cans. Less cans to recycle.
what is the star trek reference for ?
Why the Star Trek reference?
The Plasma Converter in the above article could represent the Neanderthal stages for Star Trek’s idea of the Gas Flow Accelerator and/or Accelerator/Generator which is a component in federation starship impulse engines during Captain Picard’s era. This “accelerator” can divert the energy into the electro-plasma system (aka Plasma Converter) allowing for acceleration of the ship while using impulse drive.
Secondly,
In “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” it was briefly mentioned that the atoms in plasma have enough kinetic energy that the electrons are literally torn from their nuclei — ionizing gas (a similar phenomenon that occurs with this real world Plasma Converter). In the case of the Star Trek movie, the plasma emissions (or ionizing gas) was used by the Enterprise crew to find General Chang’s cloaked Bird of Prey and destroy it.
http://www.magnegas.com/
http://jlnlabs.imars.com/bingofuel/html/aquagen.htm
I believe a variation on this process converts coal into diesel-like fuel.
This is so cool. Maybe I can get one of those 200 Ton per day systems to take core my baby’s diapers!
Dear Sir ,We are pushing your technology here in Australia. but there are questions, what keeps your plasma in place, ie a magnetic field , surely not a stainless steel cylinder, this would last about 5 seconds at those temperatures.Also can this system be coupled with a multistage desalinator to produce water for the waste heat from the plasma. We have designed the worlds first methanol fuelled waste vehicle that runs off methanol from the syngas, carryies up to 10 cub metres more than standard waste trucks and incorporates robotic arm technology with vision, this is a world first , but has to be built , if you are interested or have investors please contact us , because the two technologies compliment each other.call anytime 0416353521 0755918775 regards Greg Packer
it says it has heavy insulation inside to protect the container from the intense heat. (or it says it on another site, this is the 5th site ive been to on this topic)
Cool. Somehow this reminds me of the end scene in Back to the future, where the doc comes back from the future with his improved engine that runs on garbage. Neat 🙂
The picture of the machinery is also cool. Looks really hi-tech.