May 5, 2010

Waste-to-Energy Technologies

Waste is found everywhere,
Discarded without a care,
But it can help you and me,
When it becomes energy!

Nothing Wasted

The waste problem in the U.S. has reached a breaking point as our landfills have become filled to capacity. Lucky for us, there are many promising new techniques of waste management that convert waste and pollution into useable energy. Here are a few amazing examples of waste-to-energy technology.

• Biofuel from urban waste - Microbes and bacteria are being used to convert urban waste into fatty acids, which can be used as a feedstock for biodiesel production.
• Carbon Dioxide as fuel - Airborne carbon capture technology uses large towers to act as trees that will each absorb up to a ton of carbon dioxide emissions per day which can then be reprocessed into motor fuel.
• Anaerobic digestion of organic waste - Many Waste-to-Energy plants are utilizing anaerobic digestion of biomass to convert the biodegradable portion of organic waste into high calorific gases for electricity generation and industrial/domestic heating.
• Electricity from the desalinization of wastewater - A team of scientists at Penn State have discovered a way to use organic matter found in wastewater as the fuel to desalinate water and at the same time generate electricity.

Waste Energy provides news and information about waste to energy technologies.

Energy Kids provides a basic overview of waste-to-energy technologies.