Waste Gasification Plant in Ottawa Wins Approval and Contract

03 November 2011 Ottawa, Canada based waste to energy specialist, Plasco Energy Group expects to win a contract with the city of Ottawa to process the its waste at its gasification facility located at the nearby Trail Road landfill. Ottawa originally approved the facility in June 2008 following the company's successful operation of a demonstration facility that closed this year as originally scheduled by the MOE. Plasco says that the Trail Road plant has undergone enhancements to remove bottlenecks and improve reliability and has now returned to operation. The enhanced plant has approval for a throughput of 85 tonnes per day, and the company expects to request amendments to the C of A to permit throughput of 100 tonnes per day following a period of operation and evidence of environmental performance. The process Plasco's says that its process begins with any materials with high reclamation value being removed from the waste stream and collected for recycling, and the remainder being shredded. The shredded waste then enters the conversion chamber where it is converted into a crude syngas using recycled heat, this flows to the refinement chamber where plasma torches are used to refine the gas. According to the company, the refined syngas is next sent through a gas quality control suite to remove sulphur and acid gases, and to segregate heavy metals found in the waste stream. The resulting syngas is used to fuel internal combustion engines that generate electricity. Waste heat recovered from the engines is combined with waste heat recovered from cooling the syngas in a Heat Recovery Steam Generation (HRSG) unit to produce steam. The company says that the steam can either be used to generate additional electricity using a turbine, or it can be used for industrial processes or district heating. The solid residue from the conversion chamber is sent to a separate high temperature Carbon Recovery Vessel (CRV) equipped with a plasma torch where the solids are melted. Plasma heat is used to stabilise the solids and convert any remaining volatile compounds and fixed carbon into crude syngas. This additional crude syngas is fed back into the conversion chamber. Any remaining solids are then melted into a liquid slag and cooled into small slag pellets. The company says that these slag pellets are an inert vitrified residue and leachability tests have been conducted on slag emerging from the process and have confirmed that the slag does not leach and is non-toxic. Plasco CEO, Rod Bryden comments. "We are also encouraged that we can proceed with multiple module commercial plants, each of which will of course require environmental assessment satisfactory to regulatory authorities and approval to operate." Read More Plasco Gasification Process Chosen for Further Evaluation in California The Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority of California has selected Plasco Energy Group's waste conversion technology for the required environmental review through the California Environmental Quality Act. Mobile Waste Gasification Units for Military Applications Idaho based waste to energy technology supplier, Dynamis Energy has launched its WasteStation - a mobile waste gasification unit with military, healthcare and hospitality applications. Waste Gasification System Scores Emissions Win in Canada Recent third party testing and analysis of the University of Northern British Columbia's Nexterra Biomass Gasification System has concluded that the plant is one of the cleanest biomass facilities operating in North America. Free Magazine Subscription Free Email Newsletter