Burning Issues in Waste Disposal

Transcription

1 Burning Issues in Waste Disposal Incinerators in Disguise October 2008

2 Where Does It All Go? Resources Production Consumption Waste Waste Disposal Ask the wrong questions and you ll get the wrong answers! If you don t ask you won t get any answers!

3 New Technologies for Waste Treatment Plasma Gasification Pyrolysis Catalytic Cracking

4 Typical Industry Claims About These Technologies Pollution-free Zero Emissions Proven To Be Safe A New Way to Recycle Waste is Renewable Energy Closed Loop Not Incineration Alternative to Landfills

5 Incinerators in Disguise No technology can make everything disappear Gasification, pyrolysis and plasma arc produce the same pollutants as standard incinerators Combustion of waste gases (or direct combustion of wastes) Disincentive to environmentallyfriendly recycling, pollution prevention, green energy and green technologies

6 Gasification Typical Two Step Process: 2) Materials are heated to separate gases from feedstock 3) Gases are combusted in secondary process Combustion

7 Pyrolysis Waste is loaded into pyrolysis chamber. Heat generated by burning fossil fuels is applied to the outside of the pyrolysis chamber. Waste is reduced to gases and ash Stage 4 Gases are combusted

8 Plasma Arc Two Step Process: 2) Materials are heated with a plasma arc (6,000º to 10,000º Celsius) to separate gases from feedstock 3) Gases are combusted in secondary process Fugitive Gases Syn Gas Vitrified Slag Combustion

9 Catalytic Cracking Shredded Plastic & Catalyst In Catalytic Cracking, heat is used to depolymerize plastic in order to produce hydrocarbon products that can be used as fuel or as feedstock in manufacturing.

10 Comparison of Emissions from Incineration & Gasification Incineration (pound/year) Gasification (pound/year) PCDDs/Fs Mercury Lead Sulphur dioxide 126, ,895 Nitrogen oxides 90, ,340 Carbon monoxide 16,900 10,913 Pollutant Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League using US EPA emission data for 100 tpd plants

11 North American Power Company Proposed pyrolysis facility for medical waste in Chowchilla, California in 2003 State officials pressured city to approve without EIR Company claimed they would have no hazardous emissions and that they could generate electricity When challenged by Greenaction & residents, NAPC could provide no data whatsoever to back these claims Company disappeared from Chowchilla days later and project died

12 Alameda, California 2003 Considered garbage gasification to generate electricity Spent over $500,000 on industry consultants Proposed for low-income community of color in San Leandro Consultants claimed no pollution, no need for recycling anymore, not incineration and used Brightstar in Australia as model Rejected by City when truth revealed!

13 Brightstar Environmental Brightstar MSW Gasification Incinerator ( , Wollongong, Australia)

14 Brightstar s Wollongong Facility Closed in April 2004 because of financial and technical problems Facility no longer exists and was demolished

15 Karlsruhe, Germany Thermoselect MSW Gasification Incinerator ( , Karlsruhe, Germany)

16 Thermoselect Karlsruhe Facility Closed in November 2004 due to operational problems Facility has been demolished

17 Integrated Environmental Technologies & InEnTec Plasma Arc technology for medical, hazardous and radioactive contaminated wastes Is it safe?

18 IET & Inentec Claimed:

19 IET & InEnTec Claimed: Pollution Free - not true Commercially Proven With No Emissions not true Closed Loop System not true Five Facilities are already successfully operating at customer sites not true

20 InEnTec

21 InEnTec

22 InEnTec

23 Richland, Washington

24 The Truth about ATG Facility ATG plasma arc facility had chronic operational problems Repeated problems including with emissions equipment ATG filed for bankruptcy ATG closed plasma arc facility in 2001

25 Honolulu, Hawaii

26 Truth about Hawaii Medical Vitrification Facility Never had air emissions tested Has had numerous problems Shut down August 2004 to April 2005 due to damage to refractory of plasma arc equipment State of Hawaii Department of Health took serious enforcement action against HMV Asian Pacific Environmental Technologies IET sued HMV yet claimed it was successfully operating

27 Truth about Biopure Systems, Malaysia Had not been built at the time that IET claimed that the facility was already successfully operating Malaysian media reports that in April 2007 Biopure s phone disconnected Still has not been built

28 In the face of relentless opposition from residents and Greenaction, INENTEC CANCELLED THE PROJECT ON JUNE 13, 2008

29

30 Ebara claims Zero Emission

31 Ebara Gasification Plant, Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, Japan

32 Ebara Brochure excerpt

33

34 Truth about Ebara s Gasification Facility in Chiba Prefecture, Japan Manager of Ebara s Plant in Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, Japan honestly admits: Claim of Zero Emissions not true claim that no supplementary fuel needed not true use of large amounts of kerosene is not environmentally friendly claim in public relations DVD that 3000 kw of energy generated false claim of no secondary pollution not true it is best NOT TO INCINERATE! APRIL 23, 2007 TOUR OF FACILITY BY GREENACTION & JAPANESE CITIZENS

35 Westinghouse Plasma Corporation and Alter NRG Westinghouse Plasma Corp and Alter NRG have promoted their plasma gasification technology across the country & world The largest commercial operating model WPC & Alter NRG point to has the capacity to process only tons per day of a mixture of auto shredder residue and some municipal solid waste, claims to generate just 3.9 megawatts of electricity. (Hitachi Metals, Utashinai, Japan)

36 Westinghouse Plasma Corp/Alter NRG Plasma Technology Guess what they left out: Where is the combustion equipment? Where is the stack?

37 Alter NRG Legal Disclaimer Can we trust claims this is a proven technology? Alter NRG includes a disclaimer in publications, press releases and on their website: The projections, estimates and beliefs contained in such forward-looking information necessarily involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause Alter Nrg's actual results, performance or achievements in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information

38 Green Power Systems Proposing a waste-to-energy facility using Westinghouse Plasma Corp s technology in Tallahassee, Florida Claims In the PGV process, since there is no combustion there is no ash residue. The reactor has no need of stacks since there are no emissions from the gasification process

39 Green Power Systems: no combustion?

40 Green Power Systems Challenged The claim that there would be no combustion, stack or emissions was challenged by Greenaction after the President of Green Power Systems, Ingo Krieg, admitted that there would be a foot stack and there would be emissions. Mr. Krieg then wrote Greenaction on February 10, 2008: During my discussion with Westinghouse, they also made me aware that the process page could be mi(s)leading as you had pointed out. I never liked it, I was not the author of the website and hated when someone would say no stack. It was a clarification that is long overdue.

41 Green Power Systems continues to present misleading claims: Even though the Ingo Krieg, President of Green Power Systems admitted that the no stack claim was misleading the misleading information remained on their website

42

43 They forgot the stack in the first picture!

44 Here is Hitachi Metals stack Hitachi Metals Reports No E-321 :

45 Our communities & planet need safe, healthy and just solutions Pollution Prevention, not incineration Expanded recycling & zero waste programs Green, truly renewable energy Safe technologies, not incinerators in disguise Truth in advertising!

46 RED BLUFF PROTESTS PROPOSED INENTEC PLASMA ARC FACILITY 2005

47 Community Protest Against IWMI Pyrolysis Medical Waste facility, Treces Martirez, Philippines May 5, 2007

48 For more information: Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives