This post is adapted from an item in ISRAEL 21c that describes an Israeli discovery that converts dangerous radioactive waste into clean energy:
The problem of radioactive waste is a global one, and getting increasingly worse. All countries in the industrialized world are waking up to the need for safer hazardous waste disposal methods.
An Israeli firm, Environmental Energy Resources (EER), has developed a reactor that converts radioactive, hazardous and municipal waste into inert byproducts; vitrified slag and clean energy.
Shown above, a chunk of black, lava-like rock that is the result of the PGM process invented by EER.
Using a system called plasma gasification melting technology (PGM) developed by scientists from Russia's Kurchatov Institute research center, the Radon Institute in Russia, and Israel's Technion Institute - EER combines high temperatures and low-radioactive energy to transform waste into vitrified slag and syngas which is used to make electricity.
"We go up to 7,000 degrees centigrade and end at 1,400 centigrade," says Moshe Stern, founder and president of the Ramat Gan-based company.
Shrem adds that EER's waste disposal reactor does not harm the environment and leaves no surface water, groundwater, or soil pollution in its wake. The EER reactor combines three processes into one solution: it takes plasma torches to break down the waste; carbon leftovers are gasified and inorganic components are converted to solid waste. The remaining vitrified material is inert and can be cast into molds to produce tiles, blocks or plates for the construction industry.
EER then purifies the gas and with it operates turbines to generate electricity. EER produces energy - 70% of which goes back to power the reactor with a 30% excess which can be sold.
"It [the vitrified slag] also makes a good recyclable material for building and paving roads," Shrem said. Earlier, he told ISRAEL21c that EER can take low-radioactive, medical and municipal solid waste and produce from it clean energy that "can be used for just about anything."
The cost for treating and burying low-radioactive nuclear waste currently stands at about $30,000 per ton. The EER process will cost $3,000 per ton and produce only a 1% per volume solid byproduct.
In 2004, the Ukrainian government put out a tender searching for a solution that would provide safer hazardous waste disposal methods. EER sent in their proposal, and their technology won the bid.
EER's Karmiel facility and its installation in the Ukraine have a capacity to convert 500 to 1,000 kilograms of waste per hour. Other industry solutions, the company claims, can only treat 50 kilograms per hour and are much more costly.
"We are not burning. This is the key word," Shrem said. "When you burn you produce dioxin. Instead, we vacuum out the oxygen to prevent combustion."
In the US, EER is working to treat low-radioactive liquid waste and recently contracted with Energy Solutions, the largest American company in the field with 75% of the US market.
The company brochure gives the following advantages for the process.
- Low capital investment. The efforts of an expert engineering team and more than a decade of operating experience result in optimal and significantly smaller plant design that translates to a reduction in capital investment and long-term operating costs.
- Enhanced environmental performance. Proven environmental benefits enable a smoother and easier permitting phase to manufacturers and operators.
- Elimination of landfill costs. There is no residual ash to dispose of. In addition, the completely molten, vitrified slag can replace quarried materials for the road construction and building industries.
- Lower operating and treatment costs. PGM’s operating and treatment costs are approximately 15% lower than conventional incinerators. Savings are substantially higher when the elimination of ash disposal costs is factored in — an estimated additional $35 million over the course of a 150,000 tpa typical facility’s lifespan.
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