I have been saying for years someone should make fuel out of garbage. Has it been done & if so where?

Question

when we were in school in like the 5th grade we had to come up with alternative methods of energy. I said trash-garbage. I mean think about it, all the landfills would be drastically reduced, we'd never run out since people always have trash, and unless conversion would be through the roof it should be affordable. Now I'm in my 40's and I'm still saying it and don't think it's been done yet. Could it be done? Why hasn't it been done, or why isn't it being used more if it has been done.

Answer 1

Cement kiln use up to 80% garbages as fuel !

And moreover the ashes become an part of the cement itself without weakening it.

But here is the problem for power generation:

Capital cost per kWh for a coal power plant: 1,000$

Capital cost per kWh for a waste fueled power plant: 15,000$

So its often even more expensive than wind. And compared to recycling it is a sub-optimal solution.

Heavy metals, glass, water content, etc... are all problematic.

Also dioxines, furanes and other contaminent are a problem.

Answer 2

well im not sure but it seems smart, but they do burn trash for energy which pollutes terribly

Answer 3

Plant That Makes Fuel Out Of Garbage and Waste Called A Success

For more information contact:

e:mail: Public Affairs

Golden, Colo., May 5, 1999 — The final report on a demonstration of a technology for turning organic wastes into fuel, energy and other products calls the project a success and concludes there are no major issues standing in the way of the technology being commercialized on a larger scale.

The report is on the operation of the high solids anaerobic digester (HSAD) in Stanton, Calif. The pilot facility is based on technology developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and managed by Bioengineering Resources, Inc. Pinnacle Biotechnologies International, Inc. operated the plant.

The digester is a closed, nearly odorless system that uses naturally occurring microorganisms to convert waste—including trash from landfills and various wastes and sludges—into a fuel gas that is 55 percent methane and 45 percent carbon dioxide. The gas can be used for heat, to run a turbine to generate electricity or as a transportation fuel.

Pathogens in the food processing sludge are sanitized and leftover organic material is a high-quality compost and fertilizer.

The report, "Recycling and Energy Recovery Pilot Project - Project Report and Future Efforts" summarizes the digester's successes:

The plant was operated over an extended period of time using actual municipal solid waste and food processing wastes.

The plant was operated close to neighbors in a light industrial area with essentially no complaints regarding odor, noise or vehicle traffic.

Numerous issues regarding equipment integration were identified and resolved, paving the way for a refined commercial system development

The HSAD system consistently produced high-quality fuel gas.

The implementation of comprehensive operating and safety procedures resulted in few unexpected complications.

The report concludes, "The information gained...will surely enhance the subsequent development of commercial scale HSAD plants by reducing the perceived risk associated with emerging technologies."

The report also details challenges the plant's operators encountered during its initial run. The pilot plant finished its initial testing phase last spring when its original project funding ran out.

NREL researchers estimate many of the 5,000 municipal sewage treatment plants in the United States could also use the HSAD technology, a potential market of $1 billion. Other potential customers include food processors and waste haulers, who must now transport waste to landfills or other disposal sites.

Answer 4

Garbage incinerators can convert trash into electricity, but it is a very dangerous thing. It takes the help of natural gas usually to help get it to burn hot enough and consistent enough to heat the boiler that turns the electric turbine. The dangerous part is that everyone who knows about the incinerators usually takes old tires, paint and other things that landfills won't take or charge for and sneak it into the garbage piles. All incinerators have monitoring for what comes out of the smokestack but after it is gone all the bad things are going to rain back down on us. Our county has one and our white roof on our shed is not white, but has a black dust, or tar like stuff on it. Most landfills have pipes in them that gather the gas(methane) from the fermentation of the trash heap. This can be used to heat homes, or run boilers that can make electricity. I prefer landfills, but if they are not constructed properly the liners can leak ,the leach-ate in the landfill from the landfill can get into the groundwater that we drink, and we get one- eyed frogs. The simple thing is we need to reduce the waste we create, recycle the stuff we can and reuse as much of everything that we can.

Answer 5

Sure.  The problem is that household waste contains water and other low energy components.

So the plants that do this use fossil fuels to keep the waste burning.  They make just a little energy from the waste, not enough to justify their cost.  They are chiefly used in a few places where landfills are unavailable or very expensive.

Answer 6

It has been done but not every well. It can be done very well by use of good engineering.

Answer 7

Tecnologically there  are no obstacles to doing just that. There are a number of demonstration projects that have made fuels, such as ethanol, methanol, biodiesel and methane.

Unfortunately these demonstration projects were funded with government and private grants.  they are not commercially viable.

There is just one small problem, and that is cost.

Several years ago I investigated several of these methods with the goal of investing some capital in a project that would turn waste into fuel at a cost that would be competitive in the marketplace.  

The economic data is very hard to obtain. I was able to get glowing reports about the success of producing fuels that would work in a car or a truck,  but I discovered that it was extraordinarily difficult to get the cost data to see if I could identify any processes that would actually be financially competitive in the market place.

The answer that I came up with is that none of the processes were competitive economically. The cost of operation was far too high for any of them to produce fuel at a price that would be competitive in the marketplace.

The lowest cost that I was able to identify was about $10 per gallon for the equivalent of diesel fuel.

Even though it has been a few years, I suspect that the same is true today. I doubt that the costs have come down enough to make the systems competitive.

Gasoline and  diesel fuel will have to go up to approximately $10 per gallon or more before any of these systems is competitve with the fuels currently on the market.

Answer 8

yes its been done.

They are called waste to energy plants and what they do is burn garbage to produce electrical energy. The exhaust is run through a series of carbon scrubbers and filters so that no pollution reaches the atmosphere.

Another way is to use the methan gas that comes off of a landfill to produce energy. Kentuky just made one of these:

http://www.ekpc.com/news3.html

Answer 9

yes, it is called bio fuel, they come from biomass (organic garbage), even in the US are some

a plant built up by a company called Abengoa is close to NY City

and of course, it can be use for electricity as well as the former answer told