Video of
MSW
Gasification
Test:

How to
Recapture
Energy:

To change most forms of energy into another form requires heat. The method that has been used for many years is known as "gasification." However, there are issues with every one of the gasification units currently in use today.

The Problems:

• Current units require clean-up. This means stopping the unit and flushing it with water to remove the ash and other materials that collect during the process of gasification. This results in downtime, and contaminates the ground.
• Current units can only gasify one type of waste at a time in order to achieve a consistent end product. Most current units develop ethanol; a low-energy fuel.
• All require some electrical energy during operation, and in generating electrical energy they exhaust pollutants into the atmosphere.

Only one gasification system can gasify any hydrocarbon or any combination of hydrocarbons (municipal solid waste). The EDCI system is capable of creating syngas and/or liquid fuels, such as jet fuel, diesel fuel, and 90 octane gasoline; all sulfur-free.

This new system:

• Exhausts nothing into the air during power generation.
• Puts nothing into the ground because it is self-cleaning.
• Is designed to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Outputs from
the W2E Conversion Process:

• Syngas (CO+H2) from gasification.
• Electricity and pure water resulting from combustion in gas turbines.
• Synthetic carbon-based fuels from the slurry reactors (e.g. sulfur-free diesel, petrol and jet fuels).
• Inorganic residue, some of which has scrap value, and some of which can be made into a strong, superior building material similar to concrete.
• Complex gasification plant converts MSW into electric power, liquid fuels or chemicals.

Select the image above to see a larger version.

Usable Waste:

Waste and other types of "feed stock" that can be converted to usable energy:

• Municipal solid waste (MSW)
• Tires
• Animal waste
• Vegetation, crops, plant oils
• Water sludge (from sewage and water purification plants)
• Coal and coal tailings
• Used and unused fuel and oils
• Plastics
• Combined waste streams

Landfill Bio-reactor Summary

• Every landfill is unique. Its age, size, trash depth, annual rainfall, and the percentage of buried organics all play a part in the gas extraction volume and the total amount of time it takes to deplete all the organics from the landfill.
• EDCI expects each cubic acre in the landfill to produce approximately 129,600 minutes of harvested methane per month for 3 months.
• From that volume we expect to produce 50,000 gallons of liquid.
• Expectation is 3 to 6 months of operation in one area to exhaust landfill gas (LFG) and maximize decomposition in that section (return following year and repeat process).
• Minimize cost by using portable collector tubes.
• 20-acre portions of a large landfill would be processed at one time, maximizing safety to the environment and work crews.
• EDCI proposes to deplete 100% of all the organics in a closed landfill in 7-10 years.

Gasification Technology:

EDCI gasification is a simple, safe, efficient industrial waste treatment process that substantially reduces the weighted volume of the gasifying media, and destroys all hazardous effluents and emissions.

This closed-loop process (permitted in California and by the EPA) requires no additional emissions control, even where local air quality regulations are excessively demanding--and the residual ash is safe to discard in municipal waste or fill dirt. The residual ash is composed primarily of silica compounds (grit and sand) and common minerals (Al, Ca, Cu, Na, Mg, Fe, etc.), and is ideal as an additive to cement and fertilizers.

The system safely disposes of all waste, no matter how contaminated, by indirectly heating the feedstock chamber (while under vacuum) to approximately 1000° fahrenheit. The chamber is automatically maintained at a constant negative pressure to ensure efficient gasification.

A high-pressure blower sends the gasified VOC and other gases directly to holding tank or a combustor, where they're mixed with the incoming fuel source and are used as fuel while being destroyed in the burner flame. These gases are then streamlined into and held at the burner flame's highest temperature zone, ensuring complete combustion. The process recirculates combustible gaseous products directly into the combustor, providing partial self-fueling of the process, and/or storing the extra combustible gases for future fuel requirements.

The gasification system is powered by a patented and proven super-low NOX burner from American Combustion Technologies, which achieves the lowest level of NOX in the world (5-9 PPM), with cleaner emission levels than even the best low-NOX boilers. This burner not only passed the emission standards of California's South Coast Air Board, but was used to set the standard for burner emissions.

Select the image above to see a larger version.

Flue stack emissions from the gasification process can be fine tuned to meet local permitting requirements. Note: Many states do require permits for burners smaller than 4.0M-BTU.

Guaranteed burner/flue stack emissions:

• CO < 100 PPM
• NOX < 50 PPM

Note: Emissions are often lower than projected above.
 

Water Desalinization Technology

By recycling some of the "heat energy" (97-98%) captured from a phase II gasification plant, EDCI can co-generate enough power for a small wastewater desalinization plant, which will produce approximately 2,000,000 gallons of clean water per day.

The unique design of the "vapor compressor" acts in conjunction with the heat exchangers, working in the same manner as a heat pump in a standard electric refrigeration unit, which operates much more efficiently than other designs.

Required Technologies
for a W2E Project:

• Gasification System: Gasifies the waste streams to create syngas.
• Slurry Reactor: Converts the syngas into liquid fuels. Dryer: Dries the waste stream (if necessary) before gasification.
• Hyperbaric Compressor: Supplies high pressure for gasification efficiency.
• Variable Speed Alternator: Provides a constant frequency of electrical power at variations of speed, as waste streams and demands for electrical power fluctuate.
• High Pressure Engine: This comes in two forms, both of which function at a pressure range that provides enough oxygen to burn all the fuel in the combustion chamber, thus operating pollution-free.
• Turbine Engine: For the generation of electrical power in support of the grid.
• Piston Engine (2 megawatts): For the generation of electrical power in support of small communities, hospitals, military outposts and shopping malls.

Requirements for Project Initiation:

• Secure long-term access to waste stream
• Secure site needed for operation
• Permitting (i.e., meet all necessary government requirements and regulations)
• Secure buyers for produced commodities (e.g., electricity, liquid fuels, etc.)
• Arrange needed funding
• Fabricate and install
• Complex gasification plant. This plant can consume solid waste for over 1,000,000 people.

Select the image above to see a larger version.

Retrofitting:

Existing coal and diesel plants can be retrofitted with new gasification technologies, saving the time and expense of creating brand new facilities. Coal-burning plants can be replaced with diesel gasification technology, increasing power output by 300%.

Hydro plants can also be retrofitted with new EDCI technology, which requires far less maintenance than current hydro plant configurations, and also increases power output by 3 times the current rate.