SEMINAR PRESENTATION (2015-2016)

Plasma Technology for Solid waste

Management

Submitted by:
Guided by

Komal A Mohod
Dr. N V Bhate

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING
THE MAHARAJA SAYAJIRAO UNIVERSITY OF BARODA

Introduction
Solid waste means any garbage, refuse , sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air
pollution control facilities and other discarded materials including solid, liquid, semi-solid or contained gaseous material
resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operation. 1
About 960 million tons of waste is generated annually in India. Most of solid waste about 60% goes to open dumping
whereas 15% goes to landfilling.
Solid Waste Management is absolutely essential to minimize waste that becomes a part of landfill .Solid waste consists of
biodegradable and non-biodegradable matters. Biodegradable wastes can be composted and reused. Hazardous wastes are
highly toxic to humans, animals and plants are corrosive, highly inflammable or explosive and react when exposed to
certain things as gases. India generates 7 million tons of hazardous wastes every year.2
Various technologies are employed for solid waste management. Age old techniques include composting, incineration,
landfilling, open dumping, pyrolysis.
Plasma technology is one of the most recent advances adding solid waste management techniques. This presentation
focuses on plasma technology that treats all types of waste as well as produces many useful byproducts and electricity.
Plasma technology uses a plasma torch that produces plasma at extremely high temperatures. It can completely dissociate
1 for www.nysdeptofenvironmentaleducation.com
for www.edugreeresi.com
all inorganic and organic 2matters
into their elemental form for recovery and recycling.

Solid Waste Management

Solid waste includes food waste, plastics, paper, rubber, chemicals, paints etc. Solid waste management
includes collection, treatment and disposal of solid waste generated.
The sources of solid waste include residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial activities. Certain
types of wastes that cause immediate danger to exposed individuals or environments are classified as
hazardous.3
Classification of Solid Waste:
Garbage: Refers to the putrescible solid waste constituents produced during the preparation or storage of
meat, fruits, vegetables etc.
Rubbish: Refers to non-putrescible solid waste constituents either combustible or noncombustible.
Pathological waste :Dead animals human waste etc. The moisture content is 85% and there are 5% noncombustible solids.
Industrial Wastes: Chemicals, paints, sand, metal ore processing flyash, sewage treatment sludge etc.
Agricultural wastes: Farm animal manure, crop residues, etc.4
3 for www.britannica.com 4 for as given in CS Rao

 Proper disposal of MSW is a necessity to minimize environmental health impacts and degradation of land
resources. In developing countries, MSW is commonly disposed of by transporting and discharging in open
dumps, which are environmentally unsafe. Systematic disposal methods are composting, landfilling and
incineration.5
Composting is the regulated decomposition of organic matter to produce a final product called compost. It is
used in waste management as a method to recover organic waste. 6
Composting is done by three methods: Composting by trenching ,Open Windrow composting and Mechanical
composting.
Landfilling: A landfill site is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is oldest form of waste
treatment. Here refuse is spread and compacted in thin layers within a small area. It is a biological method of
waste treatment.
Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in
waste materials. Left over ashes, glass, metals and unburned combustibles amount to 25% of original waste. 7
Pyrolysis: Heating of solid waste at a very high temperature in absence of air.
Recycle: Separating, recovering, and reusing components of solid waste that may still have economic value is
called recycling. One type of recycling is the recovery and reuse of heat energy.

5 for "as described in book by Ojha(2012)

6 for www.aggiehorticulture.tame.edu

7 for www.eedsa.gr

Plasma Technology
o Plasma
Plasma is fourth state of matter. More than 99% of the visible matter in the universe is in the plasma state. It can
be seen in its natural form on earth as lightning or as polar light in the Arctic and Antarctic.
With increasing energy input, the state of matter changes from solid to liquid to gaseous. If additional energy is
then fed into a gas by means of electrical discharge, the gas will turn into plasma . 8
Plasma Technology is based on following
principle:
Matter changes its state when energy is supplied
to it. Solid becomes liquid, liquid becomes gas.
If even more energy is supplied to gas, it is
ionized and goes to energy-rich plasma state,
fourth state of matter.

8 for "as mentioned in Bhasin (2009)

Image reference www.plasmatreat.html

Plasma Gasification Process

Plasma gasification is a process which converts organic matter into synthetic gas, electricity and slag using
plasma. A plasma torch powered by electric arc is used to ionize gas and catalyze organic matter into
synthetic gas and solid waste.8
The feedstock for plasma waste treatment includes municipal solid waste, organic waste or both.
Municipal solid waste is a waste consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. It
predominantly includes food wastes, market wastes, yard wastes, plastic containers and product packaging
materials
Organic waste is a type of waste which can be broken down, in a matter of few months, into its base
compounds by micro-organisms and other living things. Organic wastes can be commonly found in municipal
solid waste as green waste, food waste, paper waste, and biodegradable plastics.
This process can completely dissociate all inorganic and organic matters into their elemental compounds for
recovery and recycling. Plasma can be industrially produced using a plasma torch. Plasma torch produces
extremely high temperatures.
By passing DC current between anode and the cathode of plasma arc torch and simultaneously passing of
air in annular space of torch, an extremely high temperature environment is created ranging in temperature
from 5000-10000 deg C.8
8 for "as mentioned in Bhasin (2009)

Plasma Gasification Technique

Image reference "Fig 4.3 Plasma Gasification Technique (Ojha et al(2012))"

 A plasma reactor operates in oxygen starved environment and hence there is no combustion. With core
temperature running into 10000 deg C , plasma is able to break toxic compounds within milliseconds avoiding
formation of secondary states of matter as the temperature rises to 10000 deg C.
During gasification, carbon based materials break down into gases and the inorganic materials melt into liquid
slag which is poured off and cooled.
In the third stage, gases are cleaned up and heat is recovered .Here gases are
scrubbed of impurities to form clean fuel and heat exchangers recycle the heat
back into the system as steam.
In final stage, fuel is produced. Output can range from electricity to variety of fuels
as well as chemicals, hydrogen and polymers.

Image reference "Plasma gasifier www.safewasteandpower.com

Technological Developments :

PGPs suffer a high load from the use of power at the electrodes to generate the plasma, and energy is
also expended before the MSW reaches the plasma zone in the gasifier in chopping up and ensuring that the
particle size of the waste is quite small.

For this reason they do expend a large proportion of the power generated just in maintaining their own internal
power demand. A plasma electrode-type plasma spray gun, which can generate a high temperature and clean
plasma jet by injecting various materials into the center of the arc column, has been developed. 9

Environmental Impacts :
The first noticeable difference of plasma assisted processes from classic waste treatment process is that the
syngas is cleaned before combustion, which is potentially more efficient than a post-combustion cleaning and
should have a lower cost than post-combustion cleaning of WTE flue gas.
Thus, the final emissions of the process will depend on the level of cleaning of the syngas, with the exception of
NOX that will not be formed during the gasification process.
Dioxins and furans can be avoided due to the high heat of the plasma treatment, but they can reappear during
the cooling of the syngas. Quenching, i.e. rapid cooling of the syngas, avoids formation of dioxins and furans,
but at the penalty the loss of the waste heat. 10
The vitrified ash will have to pass leachability tests in order to be reused, for instance in road construction.
9 for www.ipublishing.co.in

10 for waste-management-world.com

Economic Analysis
The analysis shows that the capital costs of plasma-assisted WTE is higher
than the traditional WTE plant, especially due to the cost of the plasma torches.
The base plasma plant scenario conducted yielded a capital charge of $76.8
per ton of MSW processed, higher than the estimated capital charge of $60/ton
for a grate combustion WTE plant.
The detailed costs of each process were higher than the base case: $81/ton
for Alter NRG, $86/ton for Europlasma.11
The energy produced per ton of feedstock is higher in plasma
assisted-gasification than in grate combustion, although not enough
to provide substantial economic benefits.
Ref: Base Case Scenario from book
by Ojha(2012)

11 for "as described in book by Ojha(2012)

Pros and Cons

Pros
The main advantages of plasma technologies for waste treatment are:
Clean destruction of hazardous waste.
Preventing hazardous waste from reaching landfills.
No harmful emissions of toxic waste.
Production of clean alloyed slag which could be used as construction material.
Processing of organic waste into combustible syngas for electric power and thermal energy.
Production of value-added products (metals) from slag.
Cons
Main disadvantages of plasma technologies for waste treatment are:
Large initial investment costs relative to landfill.
The plasma flame reduces the diameter of the sampler orifice over time, necessitating occasional
maintenance.
Emissions might cause toxic effects to living organisms.

Commercialization

Municipal-scale plasma gasification is used commercially for waste disposal in nine locations around the
world with five more projects in development. Sites for gasification facilities are often at landfills where
recuperative landfill mining can return the landfills to their original states. Plasma arc gasification is a safe
means to destroy both medical and other hazardous waste.12
In the Northeast of England plasma gasification technology is being implemented within the Northeast of
England Process Industry Cluster(NEPIC) on Teesside region by the company Air Products. This company is
building two units to gasify societal waste to produce energy with the synthesis gas produced.

Military Use
The US Navy is employing Plasma Arc Waste Destruction System (PAWDS) on its latest generation Gerald
R. Ford-class aircraft carrier.
The compact system being used will treat all combustible solid waste generated on board the ship. After
having completed factory acceptance testing in Montreal, the system is scheduled to be shipped to the
Huntington Ingalls shipyard for installation on the carrier.13

THANK YOU
12 for Journal of Hazardous Materials 123 (13): 120126

13 for The Plasma Arc Waste Destruction System to Reduce Waste Aboard CVN-78, pg. 13