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IOWA has used landfills for many years and until recent requirements, they are unlined polluting our beautiful lands, air and water. New landfills must have a liner however the hazard of the waste that is buried there does not go away. If new landfills are needed, they are very difficult to site requiring years of negotiations, much land area at high cost, not to mention dissention in the community. Other waste is shipped out of state requiring fuel to get it there. Recycling answers part of the problem but is not the complete solution.

Plasma Arc

Of particular interest to wastenotIOWA is Plasma Arc technology. It uses an electric arc much like lightning that creates high temperatures which virtually destroy waste and convert it to clean gases containing energy and inert materials that can be used to make useful products. This is done using only part of the energy from the waste itself. The rest can be used for external renewable energy.

Why bury energy?

Locked up in the waste we send to landfills is an enormous amount of BTUs. These BTUs can be recycled into useful forms of energy. This can be in the form of heat, gases, liquid fuels and electricity. Citizens and local governments all over the world are getting excited about the possibilities technology can bring, especially with high energy prices and reliance on unstable foreign governments. There are successful existing applications and new ways to use proven technologies that have moved past the research stage being and are being implemented in waste treatment facilities.

Economic study completed and a company selected to proceed with development of a plasma facility

WastenotIOWA is teamed with the City of Marion, Iowa, to implement plasma arc technology for waste treatment. They, in cooperation of other interested parties, selected SCS Engineering of Tampa, Florida, to conduct an economic analysis to determine the best feed stocks and products for a plasma-based facility in our area. Funding for the study was an appropriation to Marion from the Iowa Legislature. The study was overseen by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. After completion of the study, Marion released a Request for Submittal (RFS) for development of a local plasma solid waste treatment capability. Four companies responded to the RFS and one was selected for further efforts in developing such a facility. The effort is proceeding with a contract expected in early Fall of 2010. Completion of a 200 ton per day plasma arc waste treatment facility is expected by 2013, WastenotIOWA wants to eventually expand the initial 200 tons per day of waste treatment facility to regional plasma solid waste treatment capable of handling at least 1000 tons per day.