Plasma gasification is an environmentally superior method of treating waste for the air and land.

• It has fewer emissions of greenhouse gasses, and harmful elements that cause acid rain and smog.
• Generates non-hazardous slag as the solid product. In the larger Japanese facilities, for every 120 trucks of waste going in, only 1 truck of slag is produced.
• Generates more energy per tonne of waste processed than other technologies such as incineration.

Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The Alter NRG solution helps reduce the methane gas emissions associated with landfills, which "are 21 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas." (Environment Canada, Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990-2000)

Criteria Emissions Reductions

Given plasma gasification’s extremely high operating temperatures, potentially harmful air emissions are virtually eliminated when impurities such as SOx, NOx and HCl that lead to acid rain, smog and corrosive air pollutants are removed.

The inorganic byproducts of gasification are vitrified into an environmentally benign and glasslike slag, which can be used in construction.

At the operating plasma gasification facilities in Japan, less than 0.01 ng/Nm3 of dioxins/furans are reported. The United Kingdom’s Environment Agency estimates that during the Millennial celebrations in London the emissions from one 15 minute, 35 ton firework display equaled 120 years of dioxin emissions from the SELCHP waste-to-energy facility in Deptford, England. (Source: APSWG briefing on Energy from Waste; UK Environment Agency 2000)

Inorganic Byproduct is Reuseable

Solid byproducts of the plasma gasification process are slag and recovered metals. Non-gaseous, inorganic and mineral constituents in the MSW are converted to a vitrified slag, typically composed of metals and silica glass. This vitrified material can be used to produce metals and other byproducts, including rock wool, floor tiles, roof tiles, insulation, landscaping blocks or road aggregate.

The vitrified slag material is non-leaching and exceeds EPA standards.