Z-gen Solid Waste Gasification System

Ze-gen LLC was formed in mid-2004 in order to develop and deploy efficient gasification systems that convert municipal solid waste into clean energy.

The process uses molten iron to cause a chemical reaction in the waste, producing synthetic gas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide) and a small amount of methane from the construction debris. The only other by-products are some metal, which can be recycled, and silica, which can be reused in road construction.

The system is designed to process mundane waste streams and generate significant amounts of energy with a single stage gasifier, which results in extremely low thermal losses. The company's facilities can be expanded into modules, which process 450 tons of waste per day and yield 30 megawatts of electricity, enough energy to power almost 25,000 homes.

The reasons for developing such a system are compelling:

• In the United States alone over 350 million tons of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and construction and demolition (C&D) are created each year, with 300 million tons ending up in landfills. Once there, this waste converts into approximately 580 million tons of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas, of which 50% is methane, a substance 22 times more harmful to the environment than CO2 itself
• Landfills are the largest man-made source of methane gas emissions and account for over 8% of total greenhouse gas generation
• Ze-gen represents a non-incineration based opportunity to create clean power with a virtually limitless supply of free fuel.

Solid wastes, once in the ground, conspire to form methane and carbon dioxide. For every ton of waste that gets landfilled, there is 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas generated over the life of the landfill. Despite increasing recycling levels, the amount of waste which goes into the ground each year is also increasing.

Massachusetts alone generates enough waste to fuel 70 full-scale facilities. Nationally the market represents over $4.5 billion in annual revenue. The global market for waste gasification technology is virtually unlimited.

Ze-gen, in conjunction with New Bedford Waste Services, LLC (NBWS), is intending to conduct a demonstration of Ze-gen’s solid waste handling/gasification approach at NBWS’s facility located at 1245 Shawmut Avenue in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Specifically, the demonstration project will gasify up to ten tons per day of construction and demolition (C&D) residual material that is produced at the NBWS facility and to use it as the primary feed stock in a gasification process that utilizes molten bath technology. The products of the gasification process will be a syngas which in a production plant will be used to generate electricity. A by-product of the process is a slag which typically can be used as an aggregate, since experience in the furnace industry has shown that any impurities in the slag are bound into the material in a non-leachable state.

“We’re hoping to start building in late 2006 or early 2007,” said Davis, the company’s president and CEO. “A lot of our equipment is already sitting [in Boston] and waiting to be installed, so it will only be a three-month construction process.”

The facility would be using construction demolition and debris that is already being trucked to the Shawmut Avenue site, material that would have usually headed either to a landfill or a recycling facility. Mr. Davis said that while other types of waste, including household waste, could be used, the test facility will only use construction debris.

Mr. Davis said the six-month test will allow the company to determine the quality of the gas being produced, to determine if the gas is concentrated enough for use as energy.

NBWS’s facility has been site assigned by the City of New Bedford and permitted by DEP to handle, process and transfer up to 1,500 tons per day of C&D material, MSW and scrap tires.

Ze-gen is planning for this facility to be operational in early 2007.

When the New Bedford facility is successfully completed, Ze-gen intends to build a full-scale gasification plant capable of generating significant revenue by 2009.

Resources;

The Pitch: Ze-gen Inc., Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology - November 3, 2006

Experimental energy facility to open in city (New Bedford), By Aaron Nicodemus, Standard-Times staff writer, October 17, 2006

Comments

[Antiquated Tory]

Fuel generation AND municipal waste disposal. Two birds with one stone.

So, what's the catch?

[Mike@HCVN]

Antiquated Tory -

My guess is that they've only done this on a lab scale, hence the need to build the prototype. The catch will come when it doesn't scale as easily as they thought it would.

Mike

[chris g]

been hearing about this sort of thing for years.. it never seems to make it big (perhaps doesn't deliver on its promises).

[Engineer-Poet]

Given the size of iron-production furnaces, a failure to scale seems unlikely.

The thing that concerns me is that this system can produce exactly one thing:  combustible gas.  If the fuel product of choice turns out to be charcoal (because it is easily shipped or sequestered), the investment in such systems would be wasted.  Or worse, the sunk costs could sustain the use of inefficient systems - the situation we're in now.

[Udo Stenzel]

These guys' website can't tell a megawatt from a megawatt-hour. Sounds like a scam to me, especially with all that marketing fluff added in.

But assuming this is real, then it's only a cleaner way of incinerating waste. Valuable in itself, but not exactly a source of fuel.

[Dennis Naughton]

The article doesn't say what process they propose to use to induce gasification other than molten steel. It would be nice to learn more.

[Vimal Trivedi, Associate Professor, CSS, Surat, India]

The main aspect of urban solid waste management is to collect, process and dispose of in more systematic manner but in recent time waste management has become a more difficult task in many countries particularly in India. It is also considered after the plague occured in Surat in 1995 and now it is a political agenda in India.

[natural remedies]

We all need to do our part to clean the world.

solid tires

[Cindy Findley]

EPA has changed the comment period for public definition of solid waste.
_______________________

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Parts 260 and 261

Definition of Solid Waste Public Meeting; Extension of Comment Period

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of Public Meeting and Request for Comments; Extension of comment period.

SUMMARY: EPA is announcing an extension to the comment period for the public meeting notice published in the Federal Register on May 27, 2009 regarding the Agency's recent regulation on the definition of solid waste under Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The comment period is being extended 30 days to August 13, 2009. EPA is currently reviewing a petition filed with the Administrator under RCRA section 7004(a) requesting that the Agency reconsider and repeal the recently promulgated revisions to the definition of solid waste for hazardous secondary materials being reclaimed, and is soliciting comments and information to assist the agency in evaluating the petition.

DATES: Persons may submit written or electronic comments by August 13, 2009. The administrative record of the meeting will remain open for submissions until August 13, 2009.

This information came from http://www.FederalRegister.com

[Recycling Equipment]

It is a nice blog. Yes you have written good things here regarding waste management. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

[stuart goldhawk]

This type of energy conversion is great, But I am finding more and more material from house demolition is not being accepted. This is a major problem in the future

[Bucket Trucks]

Biomass is awesome! It's going to really change a lot in the future. It's really pretty exciting to think our trash that's been killing the environment is going to wind up being our fuel. Swweeeetttt.

[hcg Drops]

this would be beneficial for all of us..especially with the way we make wastes nowadays.