AFE to Use Plasma Gasification of Waste in 25MW Power Project in Milwaukee
08 February 2010
Alliance Federated Energy (AFE) last week announced the development of “Project Apollo,” a $225-million, 25MW energy project located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Project Apollo plans to utilize Westinghouse Plasma Corp.’s (WPC) plasma gasification technology to process municipal and industrial wastes into syngas for use in power generation. There are several facilities operating commercially around the world using WPC technology and several more in final design phase and or construction.
| A gasifier vessel utilizes proprietary plasma torches operating at >10,000 °F (5,538 °C) in order to create a gasification zone of up to 3,000 °F (1,649 °C) to convert solid or liquid wastes into a syngas. Source: AFE. Click to enlarge. |
Approximately 30% of the waste feedstock is already committed from Badger Disposal of Wisconsin, one of region’s leading industrial waste management services companies. Discussions are underway with third parties for the sale of syngas and electricity.
AFE plans to have the project operational in late 2013. The first phase of the renewable energy facility is expected to process approximately 1,200 tons of municipal and industrial waste per day, generating enough clean energy to power roughly 20,000 homes in the Milwaukee area.
Established in 2005, Alliance Federated Energy is a developer of renewable energy and related infrastructure projects focused on environmentally sustainable technologies, with a specific focus on plasma gasification technology for electric generation and energy production.
(A hat-tip to George!)
Resources
“Project would turn Milwaukee trash into energy”, JSonline, 2 February 2010
Exellent way to get rid of unwanted waste while producing essential energy..
One thousand similar installations could do a lot to get rid of harmful garbage mountains (piles) in USA and Canada.
Excellent job recovery projects.
Posted by: HarveyD | 08 February 2010 at 08:35 AM
1200 tons of waste a day - a very good demonstration of sustainable energy production. Land fills should become a thing of the past.
Posted by: sulleny | 08 February 2010 at 08:41 AM
Sounds like a lot of money for a 25 MWatt project, and if there are "several" already operating, the development may have already been written off.
It would be a great way of disposing of dead bodies.
Posted by: mahonj | 08 February 2010 at 10:17 AM
I believe what makes this technology so viable is its scalability. There are not many parts of the system, ie microbes or catalysts, that are sensitive to changes in size. More plasma torches and more after treatment systems = more garbage processed and more energy produced. I envision a time when most large municipal waste processing plants have a unit like this installed.
If enough of these are built we could significantly reduce waste to landfills, recover the slag and byproducts for use in new materials, create biofuels, and generate electricity all at the same time.
Provided the thermodynamics of the system work out (meaning it produces more energy than it uses) I can't see many roadblocks to scaling the technology.
Posted by: George Furey | 08 February 2010 at 11:43 AM
Approximately 30% of the waste feedstock is already committed from Badger Disposal...
I had to read that a couple of times!
Posted by: 3PeaceSweet | 08 February 2010 at 12:12 PM
Seems like 25Mw is how much the plasma arch consumes.
The question is how much BTU a ton of trash generates net.
Posted by: dursun | 08 February 2010 at 08:54 PM
Let's say if consumes 25 MW and produces 50 MW just for some numbers. Would that be enough? What would?
Posted by: SJC | 11 February 2010 at 07:38 PM