One Person’s Trash Could Be Another’s Tank of Gas
Published Nov 05, 2008
Tech Valley is leading efforts to turn household garbage into clean energy.
Tech Valley is on the ground floor of a research movement dedicated to converting waste to electricity and an alternative fuel source.
The State University at Cobleskill is in the planning stages of a project to bring a one-of-a-kind rotary kiln gasifier to campus. Scientists will research the energy yield of various forms of waste – from banana peels and cow patties to aluminum cans and grass clippings. The gasifier will be used to generate both gas that can be converted into electricity and liquid fuel.
“If I can take this otherwise-going-to-be-buried-or-burned waste stream and convert that into a value-added alternative energy, then I really believe that for me personally and for the university, it makes a contribution to an improvement of our very lifestyle, and that is motivating me,” says Douglas Goodale, principal investigator for bioenergy at the university.
The gasifier, which looks like a slowly rotating water heater turned on its side, works by combusting the waste inside a chamber that reaches temperatures between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees. Because the waste is not incinerated, though, no greenhouse gases will be produced. Goodale hopes to escalate energy production from the gasifier prototype to a system that produces one-megawatt – half the amount of energy that the campus uses every day.
Another Tech Valley innovator is Taylor Biomass Energy. This Montgomery company is working to build the world’s first large-scale, commercial operation energy-generation facility powered by synthesis gas produced from sorted and recycled waste.
“We need to stop wasting our waste, especially when crude oil prices are so high,” says James Taylor, president of Taylor Biomass Energy. “Organic biomass from our waste streams is an abundant resource. We need to start treating it accordingly, and the world is starting to finally understand that.”
Story by Michaela Jackson
Photo by Antony Boshier
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