How Plasma Arc could sabotage Zero Waste in Capannori

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How Plasma Arc could sabotageZero Waste in
Capannori

• Dr Paul Connett
• Professore Emerito di Chimica
• St Lawrence University, Canton, NY
• pconnett_at_gmail.com
• www.AmericanHealthStudies.org
• www.FluorideALERT.org
• Capannori, Sept 20, 2009

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Grazie a Rossano Ercolini (Ambiente e Futuro)
per avere organizzato la mia 42 visita in
Italia

• Rossano Ercolini
• Ambientefuturo_at_interfree.it
• 338-28-66-215

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Paul Connett ha parlato in 172 citta
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San Francisco

• Popolazione 850.000
• Carenza di spazio
• 50 raccolta differenziata entro il 2000
• 63 raccolta differenziata entro il 2004
• 70 raccolta differenziata entro il 2008
• 72 raccolta differenziata entro il 2009
• 75 raccolta differenziata entro il 2010
  (obiettivo)
• Zero Rifiuti (o molto vicino!) entro il 2020

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San Franciscos Approach for Easy High
Diversion
Recycled Paper21
Food Scraps20
Plant Trimmings5
Glass and Plastic Bottles Aluminum and Steel
Cans4
Compostable Paper Fiber 10
Construction and Demolition Waste25
Other15
courtesy of Jack Macy, SF Dept. of Environment
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Italia

• Oltre 2000 Comuni in Italia stanno ottenendo
  oltre il 50 di conversione dalla raccolta porta
  a porta

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Porta a Porta

• Si risparmia
• Crea lavoro
• E piu conveniente per I cittadini
• Scompaiano le campane e I contenitorri dalle
  strade
• E piu attraente per il turismo

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Italia

• Novara (popolazione 100,000) ha raggiunto il
  70 in soli 18 mesi !

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Italia

• Nella provincia di Treviso (Priula Consorzio) 22
  Comuni hanno raggiunto il 76 di conversione in
  5 anni

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RISULTATI QUANTITATIVI AUMENTO RACCOLTA
DIFFERENZIATA
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RISULTATI QUANTITATIVI AUMENTO RACCOLTA
DIFFERENZIATA
gt80
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Italia

• Villafranca dAsti (popolazione 30,000) ha
  raggiunto l 85 (Roberto Cavallo)

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Italia

• Provincia di Napoli
• San Sebastiano al Vesuvio, Volla, Meta di
  Sorrento, Vico Equense e Sorrento gt 70
• Quartiere Colli Aminei 73 (in tre mesi!)

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Nel Feb 24, 2007 Capannori (vicino Lucca) e
diventata la prima citta a dichiarare una
strategia rifiuti zero 2020 Rossano Ercolini
Ambientefuturo_at_interfree.it338-28-66-215
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FRAZIONE RESIDUA - Capannori Porta a Porta
1. Tessili e cuolo 16.52
2. Pannolini 13.95
3. Materiale organico da cucina 10.56
4. Altra plastica non imballo 9.98
5. Imballaggi cellulosici poliaccopiati 8.05
6. Imballaggi poliaccopiati in plastica 7.45
7. Imballaggi flessibili in plastica 6.81
8. Materiale organico da giardino 4.64
9. Imballaggi rigidi in plastica (non bottiglie) 3.23
10 Giornali (quotidiani e riviste) 2.54














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FRAZIONE RESIDUA Capannori
Questa e lanalisi del 17 che rimane dopo la
separazione dell 83 del materiale raccolto
porta a porta
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(No Transcript)
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Come gestiamo la frazione residua un momento
cruciale della filosofia Rifiuti Zero

• Lincenerimento cerca di far sparire la frazione
  residua
• Rifiuti Zero 2020 ha bisogno di rendere i residui
  MOLTO VISIBILI, perché
• Frazione Residua cattiva progettazione
  industriale e
• Cattive decisioni dacquisto

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• Plasma arc plants are part of family of
  technologies competing with mass burn
  incinerators (gasification, pyrolysis and plasma
  arc/torch) with very little proven commercial
  track record
• All claim NOT to be incinerators, but all involve
  two stages
• 1) the conversion of solid waste into a gas,
• 2) the burning of the gas, producing many of the
  same problems as a regular incinerator
• So the more appropriate names would be
• Gasifying incinerator
• Pyrolyzing incinerator
• Plasma arc incinerator

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PLASMA ARC TECHNOLOGY
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(No Transcript)
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For every 3-4 tons of trash you get about one ton
of ash
ELECTRICITY
TURBINE
WET SCRUBBER
SECONDARY CHAMBER
DE-NOX
STEAM
FABRIC FILTER
TEMP lt 200oC
CHUTE
BOILER
SEMI- DRY SCRUBBER
Ca(OH) 2
SUSPENSION
ACTIVATED CHARCOAL
GRATES
AMMONIA INJECTION
TRASH
FLY ASH
BOTTOM ASH
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Paragone tra Torcia al plasma con lincenerimento
di massa

• Incenerimento di massa
• NON SOSTENIBILE
• Perche distrugge risorse di materiali limitate

• Torcia al plasma
• NON SOSTENIBILE
• Perche distrugge risorse di materiali limitate

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Incenerimento con Torcia al plasma -problemi
pratici

• Il problema con tutte le tecnologie di
  gassificazione aumentano se si passa da progetti
  pilota su piccola scala a progetti industriali su
  scala commerciale.

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Incenerimento con Torcia al plasma - chimici
constraints

• Non ce magia che annulli la chimica di base.
• Quello che entra quello che esce
• Abbiamo bisogno di attenti studi di bilanci di
  massa per vedere dove finiscono il mmercurio,
  larsenico, il cadmio, il piombo, il cloro, il
  fluoro, e il bromo nei fanghi, nei prodotti
  metallici, nelle ceneri leggere o nellaria.
• Il problema finale riguarda la tematica delle
  nanoparticles. Al momento queste non vengono ne
  regolamentate, ne monitorate ma hanno delle
  conseguenze sulla salute molto gravi..

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Ogni 3-4 ton di rifiuti ottieni circa 1 ton di
ceneri
ELECTRICITY
TURBINE
WET SCRUBBER
SECONDARY CHAMBER
DE-NOX
STEAM
FABRIC FILTER
TEMP lt 200oC
CHUTE
BOILER
SEMI- DRY SCRUBBER
Ca(OH) 2
SUSPENSION
ACTIVATED CHARCOAL
GRATES
AMMONIA INJECTION
TRASH
FLY ASH
BOTTOM ASH
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PLASCO

• Has built a 100 ton per day pilot plant in
  Ottawa, Canada
• Is aggressively marketing technology all over
  Canada, US and some other countries

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PLASCO CEO Rod Bryden says

• 1) Filter ash goes back into furnace.
• 2) System produces no dioxin because no oxygen
  available.
• 3) System destroys nanoparticles.
• 4) Slag to be used in asphalt concrete.
• 5) Salt to be used on roads.
• 6) Sulfur to be used in agriculture

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PLASCO plant in Ottawa a fiasco!

• When officials from Los Angeles visited the plant
  it wasnt working
• Operators tried to start plant three times
  without success
• L.A. dropped plant from its plan because it
  hasnt operated for 1000 hours in a one year
  period
• Other communities in California and British
  Columbia have cancelled project

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PLASCO
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Solid converted to gas

At about 600 -700 deg. C
PLASCO
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Gas
Solid converted to gas

At about 600 -700 deg. C
PLASCO
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Gas
Solid converted to gas
Solid

At about 600 -700 deg. C
PLASCO
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Gas
Solid converted to gas
Solid

At about 600 -700 deg. C
PLASCO
Vitrified slag
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External energy

Gas
Solid converted to gas
Solid

At about 600 -700 deg. C
PLASCO
Vitrified slag
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Gas
Solid converted to gas
Gas Cooling Cleaning
Internal Combustion engine

At about 600 -700 deg. C
PLASCO
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When combustion engines not working
F L A R E

Gas
Solid converted to gas
Gas Cooling Cleaning

At about 600 -700 deg. C
PLASCO
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?

Gas
Solid converted to gas
Gas Cooling Cleaning
Internal Combustion engine

At about 600 -700 deg. C
PLASCO
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GAS Cooling Cleaning
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Heat Recovery unit
Heat
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NaOH solution

Heat Recovery unit
Wet Scrubber
NaCl NaF NaBr NaCN ?
Heat
Salt water
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Activated Carbon
NaOH solution

Heat Recovery unit
Wet Scrubber
NaCl NaF NaBr NaCN ?
Carbon mercury dioxins etc
Heat
Salt water
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Activated Carbon
NaOH solution

Heat Recovery unit
Carbon Filter Plus bacteria
Wet Scrubber
NaCl NaF NaBr NaCN ?
Sulfur
Carbon mercury dioxins etc
Heat
Salt water
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Activated Carbon
NaOH solution

Heat Recovery unit
Carbon Filter Plus bacteria
Wet Scrubber
NaCl NaF NaBr NaCN ?
Sulfur
Carbon mercury dioxins etc
Heat
Salt water
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PLASCO CEO Rod Bryden says

• 1) Filter ash goes back into furnace.
• 2) System produces no dioxin because no oxygen
  available.
• 3) System destroys nanoparticles.
• 4) Slag to be used in asphalt concrete.
• 5) Salt to be used on roads.
• 6) Sulfur to be used in agriculture

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Recycling fly ash

• Modern incinerators use activated carbon filters
  to remove mercury
• This carbon is part of the fly ash, and this
  should then be a SINK for the mercury (and sent
  to special facilities for recovery or
  containment)
• However if you put the fly ash back into the
  furnace then you will release ALL the mercury
  again
• There is only place left for the mercury to go
  (and other volatile metals) and that is into the
  AIR.

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No dioxin because no air

• There is plenty of air in incoming waste!
• Dioxin emitted in other plasma arc facilities

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Yang Kim (2004). Characteristics of dioxins and
metals emission from radwaste plasma arc melter
system.  Chemosphere 57 421-428

• When PVC was fed into the high-temperature
  melter, a significant quantity of PCDD/Fs,
  cadmium and lead was emitted.
• Wet scrubbing with rapid quenching, as well as a
  low temperature two-step fine filtration, or both
  of them together cannot effectively control the
  volatile metal species and gas-phase PCDD/Fs.
• The removal of PVC from the feed waste stream
  must also be effective to reduce the emissions of
  the PCDD/Fs, cadmium and lead species.

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Using salt on roads

• Salt will not be pure salt (NaCl) - could be
  problems with other salts which are very toxic ,
  e.g. sodium fluoride

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Using sulfur

• Using sulfur in agriculture could be problem if
  it is contaminated with mercury etc.

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The difference between PR hype and Reality

• The following slides are taken from
  www.GREENACTION.org
• They document the dismal track record of various
  gasification, pyrolysis and plasma arc/torch
  facilities

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INDUSTRIAL CLAIMS
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(No Transcript)
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THERMOSELECT FACILITY IN KARLSRUHE
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(No Transcript)
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BRIGHTSTARS WOOLONGONG FACILITY
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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RICHLAND, WASHINGTON
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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One of PEATs claims is very disturbing

• They also claim that they will have no fly ash
  because they are going to recycle it back into
  the process.

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(No Transcript)
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GASIFICATION, PYROLYSIS etc

• Engineering consultants view
• Many of the perceived benefits of gasification
  and pyrolysis over combustion technology proved
  to be unfounded. These perceptions have arisen
  mainly from inconsistent comparisons in the
  absence of quality information.
• Fichtner Consulting Engineers Ltd, Stockport,
  Cheshire, March, 2004

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Lurgi letter

• a decision has been taken within Lurgi to
  discontinue marketing gasification and pyrolysis
  technologies for waste conversion applications.
• This decision has come after rigorous analysis
  of market requirements, technical feasibility and
  economic sensitivities of gasification and
  pyrolysis of waste, as applied by Lurgi and our
  competitors.
• We recognize there is a positive bias towards
  gasification/pyrolysis amongst politicians and
  environmentalists. However, we are in no doubt
  that in the short to medium term neither
  technology will be developed and commercially
  proven to the point where it can compete.
• Letter (08-09-2003) to Fichter Consulting
  Engineers Ltd, Cheshire, UK