r/Gasification • u/mtn_trucker • Aug 18 '21
Starting a gasification plant
Aspiring entrepreneur here.. looking to get into the energy sector, but in a sustainable way. Recently saw the videos that Sierra Energy put out on YouTube, and have become fascinated with the process. I actually ended up doing their feedstock and product evaluation they have set up on their website, and the outcome/profit looked really good. I called them several times to see if their prototype was in the turnkey stage like their CEO Mike Hart explained in his TedTalk. However, someone finally called me back and said the company was only putting its resources into its military funded plant.
So moving on from that, does anyone have any other companies they know of that offer turnkey opportunities in the gasification industry, or any connections/resources that I could speak with? If anyone in here wants to partner up that has chemical/environmental engineering experience (I mainly have business and chemical/lab experience, not really strong in manufacturing sector).
With the huge landfill masses in the United States and nearby oceans, I feel this process could be very lucrative and offer an incentive for Americans to do more with their waste than just throw it away.
Thank you all for your help!
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u/tinytiger51 Aug 19 '21
No, because it isn't economically feasible (no matter what sierra energy says, they certainly have not been able to scale). You have to monetize the intrinsic cost and there are no real markets (or mandates) to do that yet.
You can look at companies like Frontline bioenergy, AlterNRG, but I don't think you'll find anyone with demonstrated experience gassifying non-organic waste quite yet. A better bet would be looking into something like pyrolysis for plastics because the appetite for recycling is there, and the numbers of outlets for recyclable material have begun shrinking recently.
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u/mtn_trucker Aug 19 '21
I looked at both companies you mentioned; however, they don’t really offer buyable products or turnkey options. I contacted frontline, so we’ll see if they get back with me. As for pyrolysis, are there any turnkey solutions in that sector you’d recommend? Does it involve separating plastics into basic petrochemicals, and then selling those to polymer manufacturers (this would be beneficial in my area as there are 3 of the largest polymer manufacturers in North America). Or rather, is pyrolysis a “cleaner” form of electricity generation? And does the feedstock have to solely be polymers/plastics, or can one make the feedstock a mix and the desired gases rise up, and the heavy metals fall into the bottom? If the feedstock had to be solely polymers, then I would probably have to invest in recyclable separation equipment, which I looked into a while back but it requires hefty grant/investor funding due to initial costs with no profit to show. Thanks for your input!
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u/Dr-Jagga Feb 27 '24
i have some questions regarding filteration processes if anyone may help ?
how do you stop tar in this process of gassification?
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u/mtn_trucker Mar 16 '24
The main consensus I have found with removing tars has been better cleaning/sorting of municipal waste (takes time and money) or relying on clean organics - i.e. plant and food waste. I haven’t found a patented gasification system that removes tar far better than anyone else; just that it’s a byproduct and suggestions on what it can be recycled as (asphalt, etc).
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u/AQRyan Aug 19 '21
We are in the middle of a (so far) 2 year long internal due diligence process on this type of tech. My company owns/operates a landfill, so we have unlimited access to all types of waste. We had looked at Sierra a couple years ago, but discounted them due to their lack of projects and scaled production.
For us, we are only interested in using the gasification to produce short chain hydrocarbons that we can utilize in our existing landfill gas energy generators. Since we have made the investment already, gasification is simply an add on to improve returns.
We are waiting for our technology provider to finish constructing their plant and then running samples of our waste streams through to determine the energy returns. If the math holds true, I am expecting a 35% ROI.
This is not new tech, it has been around for decades. It is simply that we in NA didn't need it as we had countries willing to buy our waste streams. We called it recycling. Now that those markets have closed, we have had to find ways of doing what we should have been doing all along. Many companies are trying to reinvent the wheel. Keep searching around and you can find tech ready to ship from Asia, and many new companies in NA with developing tech.
I would highly recommend avoiding the value trap that is pyrolysis into fuel. The regulatory and technological requirements create a steep hurdle to overcome. Unless you have chemists or people experienced with catalysts, it is probably best to avoid, or revisit after you have a system creating a return. Also, you have to own the waste streams, if you have to pay for waste, trucking or disposal of process residues, you are not likely to earn a return.