The U.S. has 3,091 active landfills and over 10,000 municipal landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Each year, Americans dump 130 million tons of trash into landfills which emit more of the greenhouse gas called methane than any other human-related source.

Since many of these landfills are located near water sources like lakes, rivers, and bays chemicals from the waste often enters the water supply. As a result, health issues from leaking chemicals often become a problem to anyone with the misfortune to live nearby.

However, a technology is coming to America that promises to make the odious unhealthful, ugly land fill a memory of the past. Its called Plasma Gasification and it turns the waste of trash into the power of gas. This new waste treatment technology is already being used in Australia and Europe and Canada have plants in design.

St. Lucie County, Florida will become the first place in America to use the process of Plasma Gasification on its waste in early 2011. The technology which was originally created by NASA nearly forty years ago has become a useful waste treatment technology process that uses an electrical arc to break down waste using high temperatures.

Plasma gasification is actually a process for blasting garbage with a stream of superheated gas, known as plasma. When trash is dropped into a chamber and heated to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, its organic components, food, fluids, and paper vaporize into a hot, pressurized gas.

The process is capable of breaking down pretty much anything except nuclear waste, the isotopes of which are indestructible. The by-products of the process are used as a raw material for numerous applications, including bathroom tiles and high-strength asphalt.

The technology needs power from the electrical grid to get started. But, once the cycle is under way, the new gas is fed into a cooling system, generating steam that drives turbines to produce electricity. About two thirds of the power is siphoned off to run the converter; the rest can be used on-site for heating or electricity, or sold back to help power the utility grid.

It has been estimated that in an average American city, an investment in a $250 million dollar plasma gasification trash converter would pay for itself in just ten years. So, an economic justification for the program is sound, the technology is viable and the process meets an important environmental need.

An Atlanta company called Geoplasma is currently developing a plant for St. Lucie County that will vaporize 1,500 tons of trash a day into pressurized gas. The gas will then use turbines to generate 60MW, enough electricity to power 50,000 homes.

The financial advantages for American cities are compelling. The technology exists and is proven. So, its now only a matter of time when landfills in America will be a symbol of the past. Plasma Gasification will soon turn our waste into gas and the electricity needed to power our homes will come from the recycling of our own trash.

http://www.eworldvu.com