SCI-FI to SCI-FACT: Plasma Converter

[133724]

74 year old Joseph Longo, founder and CEO of Startech Environmental Corporation, is fast becoming known as “The Prophet of Garbage” because he has developed a Plasma Converter that can turn the world’s most dangerous and toxic waste into clean usable energy.

This promising new technology straight out of Star Trek holds out the promise of making landfills and other troublesome toxic storage sites a thing of the past and with further research and development become a viable alternative energy source for homes, transportation and space travel.

Startech’s trash converter uses superheated plasma to reduce garbage to its molecuar components. Longo’s multimillion dollar technological marvel dubbed the “Plasma Converter” has taken almost 20 years to design and build and can fit easily within a space the size of a two-car garage. Yet, it has the capability to consume almost any kind of waste or toxic product through a process called plasma gasification.

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The by-products are an obsidian-like glass used as a raw material for numerous applications, including bathroom tiles and high-strength asphalt, and a synthesis gas, or “syngas”—a mixture of primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be converted into a variety of marketable fuels, including ethanol, natural gas and hydrogen. The only type of waste that it cannot break down is nuclear waste since the radiation is already in its natural atomic state.

http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2007/02/18/sci-fi-to-sci-fact-plasma-converter/

[Hissyspit]

1. William Shatner invented everything!

[unblock]

2. sounds more like "back to the future" than "star trek"

gotta keep those metaphors straight....

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Sounds more like "mad max beyond thunderdome"

than "back to the future."

[dysfunctional press]

4. the name "plasma converter" is right out of star trek though.

i think that's why the comparison was made.

but- you're correct, in that it does sound more like a mr. fusion than a component of a warp drive engine.

[booley]

5. lets hope it doesnt' disapear

like so much other technology that could was supposed to be able to fix our energy problems.

[lvx35]

6. So what about the lithium mercury and lead?

That's what I wonder.

[bigmonkey]

7. Clearly it can't break down atoms.

So heavy and toxic elements have to still be a problem. I would expect, though, that they would be _more_ available for resuse after this process.

[lvx35]

8. I suppose if they are pure, and contained, that's good enough.

I mean if you can ship the output strait over to the thermometer factory or whatever.