by manon
Sun Sep 10th, 2006 at 10:55:26 AM EST
A Florida county has grand plans to ditch its dump, generate electricity and help build roads — all by vaporizing garbage at temperatures hotter than parts of the sun.
The $425-million facility expected to be built in St. Lucie County will use lightning-like plasma arcs to turn trash into gas and rock-like material. It will be the first such plant in the nation operating on such a massive scale and the largest in the world.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060909.wvaporizetrash/BNStory/Science/home
They expect that they will only use about 1/3 of the electricity they generate to power the plant, and sell the rest to the grid.
The by-product is expected to be a type of slag which can be used to contruct roads.
And, finally, the city thinks it can go through its old garbage in 18 years.
It will be interesting to see how this project works out.
