The Energy Blog
Israeli Discovery Converts Radioactive Waste into Safe Inert Vitrified "Rock"
and Clean Energy
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.
