Westinghouse Plasma

Westinghouse Plasma Corp.'s gasification technology was originally developed over 30 years ago in collaboration with NASA to simulate space re-entry conditions over 5,500C (10,000F). The gasification technology was adapted in the late 1980s for the treatment of hazardous wastes such as contaminated landfill material, PCB contaminated electrical har... dware, transformers and capacitors, and steel industry wastes. In the mid 1990s, Westinghouse Plasma Corp. in cooperation with Hitachi Metals completed an R&D program and pilot testing program to confirm the capability of the plasma cupola to treat municipal solid waste (MSW) and other waste materials to produce a syngas which could be used in a power plant for the production of steam and electricity. The success of the R&D program provided the technical basis for the design and installation of a pilot scale 24 ton/day MSW gasification plant in Yoshii, Japan. Hitachi Metals and Westinghouse Plasma Corp.'s combined efforts culminated in the demonstration to the Japanese government that the Yoshii Waste-to-Energy facility was capable of using plasma energy to reliably and economically gasify waste materials for energy production. In September 2000, The Japanese Waste Research Foundation awarded a process certification of the technology and the Westinghouse plasma gasifier was born. Lessons learned at Yoshii were applied to full scale facilities in Mihama-Mikata and Utashinai Japan, which both began commercial operation in 2002 and 2003 and continue operating today. The experience gained at the two Japanese facilities was used to create the next generation gasifier which was commissioned in 2009 by SMSIL in Pune, India. That facility treats hazardous wastes from over 40 different industries. More recently, Air Products purchased a plasma gasification reactor from Westinghouse Plasma Corp. for Air Products' 1000 tonne per day plant to be built in Northeast England.Read More