A mega 200 ton per day waste to energy plant will be going on line late in 2008 in Panama.  Startech Environmental Corporation, the only public company building these biomass conversion plants, already has 3 five ton plants in operation and several others in production.  This will be the largest plant of its kind by far. The company uses plasma arc technology to efficiently convert ordinary garbage to hydrogen gas.  This gas is burned as fuel or used to create hydrogen fuel cells for creation of electricity. 

How it works: Startech technology turns waste from a growing environmental problem into an important alternative energy resource.  The plasma arc:  plasma is a gas that has been ionized by the converter to become a highly efficient electrical conductor.  A lightening like plasma arc of electricity, 3 times hotter than the surface of the sun, is transferred to the waste material, exciting the molecular bonds so much that materials break down into their elemental atoms.  The Plasma Converter is computer controlled, easy to use, and operates quietly and safely.  

This versatile alterative fuel technology can break down anything, but waste biomass is the preferred raw material, such as garbage or grass clippings. The processed end products are known as the ‘melt’ and the ‘PCG’ (plasma converted gas).  The PCG consists of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide and Startech purifies the gas to specific levels of pure hydrogen.

The hydrogen gas is used for:

• Generating electric power for any purpose.
• Plant heating and air conditioning
• Produce chemicals for plastics
• Hydrogen fuel cells as a source of stored electricity to power vehicles and machines.

The solid ‘melt’ is quite stable on is used for making recycled materials in the metal, brick, abrasives, construction, and cement industry.  This is a growing technology with a constantly renewing source of raw materials for energy conversion (thanks to our constant consumption of ‘stuff’!)

Garbage to Fuel efficiency for Startech’s Plasma Converter is 73%, not bad for something that would have been sitting in a landfill for thousands of years.