A GEM of An Alternative Energy Idea
IST Energy, a small company in Waltham, Massachusetts has unvailed a unique solution for turning ordinary trash into energy. The product is a self contained unit the size of a shipping container that gasifies trash and converts it to electricity and heat. The company calls it the Green Energy Machine (GEM).
The GEM is targeted for schools, universities, hospitals and office buildings. The GEM can offset a building’s energy use while dramatically cutting trash disposal fees. The cost of trash removal can vary greatly, but a university or office park with a number of buildings could pay about $200,000 a year, according to IST Energy executives.
The advantage to this product is it is clean technology. The device does not burn the trash, instead it uses gasification, a process that converts the raw material at high temperatures that is much more eco-friendly than combustion. A number of clean-tech companies are trying to combine gasification with renewable sources of fuel, namely municipal solid waste or biomass.
The size of the GEM is surprising small, taking up as little as three parking spaces. The GEM recycles food, cardboard, plastics and agricultural wastes. Metal and glass have no have no energy content, so they should be recycled.
The company, which was spun out of a research and development firm, says it can convert 95 percent of the waste–up to three tons of trash a day–into usable energy. The remaining 5 percent is ash. With three tons of trash a day, a unit can provide enough electricity and heat for a 200,000 square-foot building holding about 500 people, it says.
Feeding the maximum of three tons of trash will yield about 120 kilowatts of electricity and about double that in heat, which will fulfill about 15 percent of a building’s energy needs, IST Energy figures. The bigger financial benefit is in cutting disposal fees
The GEM costs aproximately $850,000 but the company estimates that the costs can be recouped within three or four years. The company is looking at offering lease options to make it more attractive. Another bonus is the unit qualifies for a ten percent federal tax credit for renewable energy.
Through a loader, trash goes into the machine, which shreds the garbage. Then the machine removes moisture and creates pellets–shaped just like the sawdust pellets used in pellet stoves. Then the pellets are put into an air-fed gasifier designed by the company, which generates what is called a synthetic gas, or producer gas, which typically contains mostly hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
That gas is the fuel for making electricity or heat. IST Energy recommends that the best energy source would be a natural-gas microturbine, which would need to have its setting adjusted, or a generator. It takes about two hours before the GEM runs from its own energy output, so the main carbon emissions come from burning the synthetic gas.
Is It Worth It? Absolutely! However, since it is a new product, many will take a “wait-and-see” approach. But once it proven effective, expect this GEM to take off big time.
