This recycling innovation turns trash into electricity, syngas, and rock wool

When people think of recycling, they usually imagine taking products made of plastic, paper, or some other substance and processing the material to create other products made of the same things. But another way to think of recycling innovations is turning trash into energy.

HowStuffWorks describes a process that uses a device called a plasma converter. The idea is that trash of all kinds, not just the kind that is typically recycled, is subjected to the tremendous heat of a plasma torch. The trash is not burned but rather is broken down into the separate atoms of its composition. Carbon-based waste can be siphoned off as a gas and turned into synfuel after it is properly processed, The rest is turned into slag, though useful material, such as metals, can be separated out and reused. The heat generated by the gasification process can be used to generate electricity.

One of the byproducts of garbage gasification is rock wool, a light, airy substance that is used as insulation, being twice as effective as fiberglass. It can also be used to contain oil spills, scattered about the area of the ocean where the oil has been deposited.

Currently, rock wool is created by mining rocks and processing them by melting them and streaming the material using spinning machines. The cost of rock wool created in this manner is about $1 a pound. However, the cost of rock wool as a byproduct of garbage gasification could be as little as ten cents a pound, greatly improving its market value. Sales of the rock wool would be a source of income for garbage gasification along with selling electricity and syngas.