We Are the Waste-to-Energy Solution

PROBLEMS WE FACE

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    Waste disposal

    • No new landfills being permitted
    • Potential leakage from existing landfills
    • No residuals to be landfilled, total recycling.
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    Energy

    • Electricity: The demand for power is increasing faster than new power plants are being built.
    • There is a lack of liquid fuels for transportation or industry.
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    Climate change

    • Awareness of Greenhouse gases from fossil fuels combustion.
    • Methane from landfills is 23 times worse than CO2 for global warming.
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    Most processes have poor financial returns

    • Most current “green” technologies depend on subsidies.
    • Most current technologies depend on a narrow raw material inputs that often requires preprocessing.

AST BRINGS SOLUTIONS

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    Waste Disposal

    • No need for new landfills
    • Total recycling, all materials are re-used
    • No residuals to be landfilled, no ash.
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    Energy

    • Electricity: Potential to supply 50 % of U.S. demand
    • Liquid fuels: Syngas converted to gasoline, diesel or alcohols
    • Ideal for distributed generation.
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    Climate change

    • No combustion emissions when producing syngas
    • Reduced carbon footprint compared to other WTE
    • Avoid methane from landfills.
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    Most processes have poor financial returns

    • Lower capital cost.
    • Lower operating cost.
    • Easiy disposal of mixed wastes
    • Can handle large waste volumes.
AST Market Potential
  • Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is 468 million tons per year (MTPY) in the U.S. and Industrial Waste is five to ten times larger than that
  • Nationally, more than 50% of electrical demand could be generated from Industrial and Municipal Solid Wastes with AST’s process
  • If all MSW in the US were converted utilizing the AST process, 5000 reactors would be required for a potential market size of $500 billion
  • Add the other waste streams and increase the market to the rest of the world, and these figures multiply many times over
The World of Waste

Type Description Photo MTPY Current Solution AST Solution
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) The solid waste generated by individuals, businesses and industries that is not regulated as hazardous or listed as universal or special wastes 468 54.2% landfilled 34.1% recycled 11.7% combusted The AST process gasifies organics, recover metals in ingots and leaves no residuals to be landfilled
Construction & Demolition (C&D) Waste generated by the constructions and demolition of homes, buildings, roads, etc. 128 This material is land-filled. The C&D debris made in the US each year can fill a typical city street 4 ft tall with trash and run that wall from NY to LA 6 times. 50% of this waste is organic and suited for gasification by AST. Metals are automatically re-cycled by AST
Biosolids The dewatered solids left over from waste water treatment plants that are mainly organic com-pounds having the con-sistency of wet cardboard 8.2 Most biosolids are disposed of in landfills. Disposal can be done on land used for non food crops but heavy metal contamination is possible The high organic content of the material makes it an ideal product for gasification
Auto Shredder Residue (ASR; car fluff) What is left over after shredding and processing of cars for scrap metal. ASR consists of rubber, cloth, glass, dirt and metal from the wiring 4.9 Landfilled Material is high in BTU’s (similar to coal) and is readily gasified
Railroad Ties (cross ties) Timbers impregnated with Creosote or other preservatives 0.4 Cross ties can only be combusted in special furnaces. They are still used for land-scape retaining walls AST can safely gasify the cross ties without environmental or health concerns about the preservatives used
Coal Ash; the wet form is known as fly ash The left over after coal combustion. It is 1/5 to 1/3 the volume of the combusted coal 131 Coal ash is stockpiled and re-used (43%). The enormous fly ash spill in Kingston, TN demonstrates the dangers. There are over 1,000 fly ash ponds in the US AST can vitrify coal ash into harmless material while recovering the carbon in the ash. The percentage of unburned carbon depends on the coal being combusted
Tires These are used tires being discarded from cars, trucks and off –the- road vehicles 4.9 There are 275m tires stock-piled in the US. Only 12.6% of tires are being land disposed. Tires that are buried are shredded or they will float to the surface AST can gasify the rubber and recover the stainless steel found in the belts and bead
Pulp & Paper (P&P) The type and volume of P&P waste varies by mill. Recycling mills generate 10% to 15% in “rejects”. Mills generate significant waste water cellulosic sludges 15 51.8% landfilled or lagooned; 14.6% land use application; 21.9% incineration; 11.7% other uses AST can generate power and steam from the waste for mills, better than conven-tional combustion. AST turns excess moisture to hydrogen
Steel mills Steel mills and found-ries produce a large variety of wastes, from fines to slag to used casting sand contam-inated with metals 45 Some of these products have markets depending on location. Most are landfilled or disposed of as toxic wastes due to high metal concentrations AST can process an recover the metals in many of these wastes. It can also process the coke fines without additional steps
E-Waste Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap, or waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) describes discarded electrical or electronic devices 3.2 There is limited recycling of these items. Many are ending up in third world countries where the the products are burned to recover the metals in the waste, generating toxic fumes AST’s thermal plasma process can safely recover metal from chlorinated mixes as no furan or dioxins are produced. Precious metals in e-waste sell for $6,000 to $10,000 /ton
Aluminum spent pot liners These are the used refractory linings of the pots used in smelting aluminum. The EPA classifies them as K088, the single most toxic waste from the aluminum industry. They contain cyanide, fluoride, arsenic and other toxins 0.1 There is no remedy to decontaminate and dispose of K088 in an environmentally safe way. Today it is buried in hazardous landfills. Current Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) has caused a 3 fold increase in the volume due to dilution of wastes AST’s thermal plasma process is an ideal method for treating spent pot liners. Aluminum can be recovered from the dross using plasma