Plasma TV innards make biofuels from waste
Researchers at Etudes Chimiques et Physiques in France have discovered a new low cost method of making clean biofuels. By using a GlidArc reactor found in plasma TV’s various different waste products can be converted to clean fuels.
According to the American Chemical Society (ACS), Albin Czernichowski, Ph.D who took the photo. and other researchers from the Etudes Chimiques et Physiques have taken the process that lights up Plasma TV’s and used it to create “ultra-clean fuel”. The GlidArc reactor produces clean fuels by electrically charging gas clouds (plasmas). This process cleans “dirty gases produced by a low-tech gasification of locally available wastes, biomass, or other resources to produce a clean mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas to synthesize biofuels.”
“Low-tech and low cost are the guiding principles behind the GlidArc reactors,” said Albin Czernichowski, Ph.D., who presented the report. “Almost all the parts could be bought at your local hardware or home supply store. We use common ‘plumber’ piping and connections, for instance, and ordinary home insulation. Instead of sophisticated ceramics, we use the kind of heat-resistant concrete that might go into a home fireplace. You could build one in a few days for about $10,000.”
The resulting reactor is about the size of a refrigerator. The researchers custom design the reactors to process whatever waste material is available.
One waste product that is used is glycerol. Glycerol is a byproduct of the production of biodiesel. For every 2,000 pounds of biofuel produced, 200 pounds of glycerol is created. Converting it to syngas provides another marketable product for biodiesel producers. Syngas could be used in internal combustion engines and gas turbines that are used by many utilities to create electricity.
GlidArcs can also be used with other waste substances like plant waste from corn or other crops and used restaurant cooking oil. Large farms or farming communities could use a low cost GlidArc to produce fuel for generators, tractors and other farming equipment.
Being low cost and low tech ought to make the GlidArc process a biofuel refinery’s dream, but with all of the biofuel technology available it may get overlooked.
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