Computational Analysis

Experimental Techniques

Innovation and Experience
 
Waste Processing

 

Conversion – High temperature processes (plasma operating at 10,000 C) require vast amounts of input energies, but have advantages: the amount of unprocessed material may be reduced; chemical reactions are driven to completion and all input feed stock molecules are broken into their fundamental atoms and ions. The resulting ionized gas may be quenched to form a fuel/gas mixture for direct conversion to electricity, transportation fuels or hydrogen. The remaining glassy slag, if any, can be used for road base or insulation.


Elimination - A recent development is the denial of consumer electronics (eWaste), insufficiently dried sludge cakes, disaster debris or medical waste to landfills. Increased tipping fees, transfer station costs, and legislative disposal fees are sufficiently high that net energy generation is not an economic requirement. Additionally, locations such as the Virgin Islands simply have no local real estate remaining for waste sequestration.

Electrothermal Characterization of a High-Voltage, AC Thermal Plasma Torch

The Institute for Strategic and Innovative Technologies is pursuing unique, high-voltage, single- and multi-phase plasma torches for gasification studies. The power is supplied from 480 V and stepped up to nearly 6 kV. Torch operation is characterized by the Volt-Ampere characteristic (VAC) which is useful to determine the power rating as well as diagnose plasma dynamics.

The ISIT tasked TezlaTec to assess the fundamental characteristics of a single-phase torch using air and Argon. TezlaTec provided overall management of the project including assembling a team comprised of research scientists from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and North Carolina State University to measure the spectral output. Additionally, TezlaTec provided electrical measurements of the torch during operation and subsequent analysis of the data.


The VAC indicates the plasma is stable up to 10 kW, marginally stable up to 15 kW, and unstable above 15 kW. Maximum power is 20 kW. Peak temperature measured adjacent to the torch output is 11,300 C. Temperature downstream of the torch output is in the range 4,000 – 7,000 C. These temperatures are sufficient to convert various waste streams into SYNGAS. Results were published in the 65th Gaseous Electronics Conference, 2012.

Document
Click here to see the Gaseous Electronics Conference presentation.