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Geoplasma Plasma Refuse Plant
Geoplasma intends to set up plasma refuse plants in the United States to transform ordinary trash into usable energy.
(Geoplasma plasma refuse plant diagram)
Plasma gasification is used to transform waste in to energy. It uses techniques pioneered by NASA forty years ago to simulate the conditions encountered by space craft returning and coming through the atmosphere at high speed.
Ordinary garbage is fed into a 10,000 degree Fahrenheit stream of plasma; organic components vaporize, creating a syngas that can be cleaned to then run a turbine, creating electricity. Non-organic materials (like metals) condense for later industrial reclamation.
This isn't quite the same principle as the one powering Mr. Fusion, the favored power source in Back to the Future. But you can still dump your trash in it, and get power out.
(Mr. Fusion gets fuel in Back to the Future)
From Geoplasma; the site has a nice instructional video that goes along with it. Via Engadget.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/16/2008)
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