This looks really quite a good thing. I was skeptical because incineration hasn't been good news, but this actually looks like it could be a good system. And scalablity is not a problem in the sense that small systems can work, it seems. "Keeping the system small and avoiding the expense of creating plasma makes it affordable for businesses to deploy: excluding the gas burner, the system costs $850,000 and, according to Haber, will pay for itself in four years through savings on electricity, heating and waste disposal charges.
Haber says the entire system can save the equivalent of about 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year through reductions in landfill gases, fossil-fuel use and the transport of waste. Haber also claims that, compared with traditional incineration, the quantity of toxic gases produced by the GEM system is negligible. 'It's really a night-and-day difference,' he says."
However, the real issue would be about making sure that the products of the process are properly scrubbed -cleanness is not inherent. And also anything that runs on rubbish tends to encourage or at least not discourage the production of the same or at least perhaps the non-recycling of it. So some careful monitering and regulation would be needed to make it work for the benefit of all.
Read all about it: Could your trashcan solve the energy crisis? - tech - 22 April 2009 - New Scientist:
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