Waste to methanol
16 Aug 2001
Startech Environmental has signed a strategic alliance with the Hydro-Chem Company - a subsidiary of Linde AG - to produce and sell combined plasma converter methanol systems and plants that produce methanol from a variety of feedstock materials.
The Startech plasma converter is an electrically driven machine that produces an intense field of radiant energy that causes the dissociation of molecular bonds of solid, liquid and gaseous compounds.
The molecules of the waste material are then rfseparated into their elemental atomic components, and then reformed into re-coverable nonhazardous commodity products, such as methanol, ready for commercial use.
Joseph F. Longo, Startech President said, 'Hydro-Chem and Startech will join our systems together and sell the combined package to end-user customers. Customers using the combined package make money at the front end with the Converter from processing wastes, and make money at the back end with the attached Hydro-Chem units producing and selling the methanol.'
'For example, for each ton of waste such as tyres, discarded paints, solvents, or PCBs fed into the Converter, about 150 gallons of methanol will be produced.'
'We also think that one of the biggest opportunities for methanol is as an environmentally-clean fuel for steam boilers and turbines in the electric power generation industry', he added.
