Climate and energy

Reprinted in full from the KCStar -

Canadian company discusses method to transform garbage into energy
By DAVID KLEPPER

TOPEKA | A Canadian company has a novel idea for generating energy from landfill trash, and some Kansas lawmakers say it could be part of the next generation of energy sources.

Representatives of Calgary-based AlterNRG met with Kansas officials Monday to discuss the company’s plasma gasification technology, which uses a process developed for NASA to superheat landfill garbage and convert it into a highly energized gas, which can then be used to produce electricity.

There’s no plan now to implement the technology in Kansas, but four Kansas lawmakers who met with AlterNRG say it’s the kind of innovation that Kansas — and the nation — must look at to supply energy for the future.

Officials from the company met with the lawmakers and Rod Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, as well as executives from Kansas City Power & Light and Deffenbaugh Recycling and Waste Management Services.

The meeting “really could be the start of something great for our state,” said state Rep. Ronnie Metsker, an Overland Park Republican who was at the meeting.

Whether or not plasma gasification ever comes to Kansas remains to be seen. But the lawmakers said their constituents demand that they start looking at all options.

“There is a definite interest out there in talking about these issues and finding solutions,” said state Rep. Kay Wolf, a Prairie Village Republican. Rep. Terrie Huntington, a Fairway Republican and Sen. David Wysong, a Mission Hills Republican, also helped organize the meeting.

The process involves plasma torches capable of producing temperatures of 5,400 degrees.

It was initially developed by Westinghouse to help NASA test spacecraft at the intense heat of atmosphere re-entry, said Alex Damnjanovic, an AlterNRG vice president.

Plasma gasification can be applied to almost any waste now put in landfills, and it produces fewer carbon emissions than standard power plants that burn coal or natural gas.

The facilities probably would be built on site at a landfill, running on either new waste hauled to the dump or perhaps waste mined from the landfill.

Two commercial plants using the process are operational in Japan.

AlterNRG hopes to open its first U.S. plant in Massachusetts.