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The mayor of San Jose (where 3,500 tons of garbage is generated every day in the Greater Metropolitan Area) and state electricity generator ICE are proposing to install a plant to create electricity from garbage.
According to Rene Castro, Minister of Environment, “77 of the 81 cantons in the country are facing poor waste management problems.”
Spanish readers can see the article in La Nacion here
[url=http://www.nacion.com/2012-06-28/ElPais/ice-y-municipios-buscan-convertir-desechos-en-luz-.aspx]ICE y municipios buscan convertir desechos en luz[/url]
This should be done all over the country don’t you think?
Scott
This is a great idea if it can be made to work, and if somebody can find a place to do it. (Not in my back yard, thank you very much.)
The likely approach is to burn garbage to create heat to drive steam turbines but that poses many technical problems including the varying moisture and combustibility of trash from one source and another. Steam generation generally relies upon consistent qualities of the fuel being burned. And then there are the matters of air pollution (Not upwind from me, thank you very much.), and disposal of the resultant ash (Not in my back yard, thank you very much.) with its high concentrations of toxic materials.
And, once somebody has found a place to do this, there will be the matter of collecting the trash from 77 cantons and centralizing it, with the additional pollution and traffic congestion that comes from all those garbage trucks.
DCM has nicely outlined some of the major problems in turning garbage into electricity. Here’s another: to be effective, organic material, preferably dry [or dried] must be the fuel. Old refrigerators and junk cars don’t burn well. Oh, and then there’s the carbon dioxide, sulfur, etc., and the fuel cost of garbage transport, and, and, and………
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