Waste To Energy

The concept of using our most discarded materials to generate electricity has been around for a long time. We generate an incredible amount of waste every year, commercially and in municipalities. The technology now exists to turn this waste into a renewable energy source. The costs of energy and the technology are now good enough to start mining waste, instead of drilling for oil. 

There has been a lot of resistance to waste to energy (WTE) systems from environmental groups because of the older technologies which fundamentally burned the trash and used to heat to boil water, the steam then generated electricity. New technology no longer burns the waste, but gasifies it. Heat in the absence of oxygen gasifies what is inside. The gases are used as a fuel for the production of electricity. The technology is simple and available. Emissions are within standards of federal and local regulations, but there is still a reluctance to implement. So the opportunities are going overseas.

Ceres Associates is promoting the concept of WTE as best we can. We have generated some interest in the US, but permitting moves very slowly here, and any such projects will be quite a while in coming. However, in other countries the demand for WTE systems is starting to crescendo.

It is a green-house gas eliminating process. Methane is generated from landfills, and methane is one of the most dangerous of green house gases. Methane is consumed in most gasification systems. Landfill space is saved, groundwater is saved, air quality is enhanced - a lot of good happens when WTE systems are employed - not the least of which is energy generated reducing the impact of petroleum products on the environment.

One more thing, most WTE systems are very effective at destroying most hazardous wastes. This is one other small benefit.

Sustaining Environments Worldwide

The tag line for Ceres Associates is "Sustaining Environments Worldwide." We have been doing that in a small way for several years now with our waste management and recycling efforts in the Middle East. Now we are taking the effort to a whole new level. 

Waste to energy technology is coming down in price and the price of energy is going up. Using municipal waste to generate energy is a concept that has arrived with the push of many state governments toward using renewable energy sources. Ceres Associates has partnered with a firm that has a pyrolysis technology that reduces municipal waste volume by over 90 percent, and electricity is produced out the back end.

If you read this blog, you know about the e-waste destruction technology that we represent. What is even more interesting is the same technology can be converted to recycle tires in the most efficient way possible. Thirty percent of a tire (by weight) is petroleum. This technology recovers all of the petroleum in the tire, which is more or less equivalent to bunker fuel. The technology also recovers the metals in the tires. The rest of the material is gasified and the gasses are destroyed. There is very little residual waste material. A 300 ton per day plant will be operational in the US by the end of the year. Waste tires are a problem all over the world. This technology can solve that problem, while generating a significant profit for the owner.

Additional technologies we are looking at will take the particulates out of the smoke released by fire places, greatly reducing air pollution in colder locales. There is a new foam that has been produced that will greatly aide the ease of mitigating asbestos in building materials and ships. It is all very exciting to know that we can have an impact on reducing human impact on the climate.

More Recycling News

A few months ago we published a blog about a new e-waste recycling technology and were very impressed with the technology and the potential return on investment. After a couple of trips to speak with the inventors and see the technology in action, we are definitely even more amazed than previously. The technology is versatile. That is it can be used for e-waste, then go through a short cleaning period and then recycle waste tires. But this team of inventors have many amazing recycling and other environmental technologies to share. I am scheduled to visit again this month and will write on this blog more in the future about what we have discovered.