Northbrook, Illinois & Shanghai, China – October 10, 2013 – PEAT International, Inc., (“PEAT”) a leader in plasma-thermal waste destruction systems, announced the successful commissioning of a Plasma Thermal Destruction and Recovery (“PTDR”) system in Shanghai, China. The 60 kg/hr system – designed for medical waste and oil refinery sludge – was installed for Abada Plasma Technology Holdings, Ltd. – an Asian-based renewable energy project developer.

PEAT’s PTDR “single stage” plasma-thermal process transforms hazardous waste through molecular dissociation at 1,500°C (2,732°F) into recoverable, non-toxic end-products, synthetic gas and heat (sources for energy recovery), metals and a vitrified glass matrix. Emissions are below the most stringent environmental standards used anywhere.

“This is end-stage technology and sets the standard for clean hazardous waste remediation. Only with plasma can you achieve temperatures high enough for waste destruction in a single-staged process,” said Joseph Rosin, PEAT International Chairman. “It’s a 21st century solution that addresses three important needs: significant volume reduction, full pollution control and competitive pricing. We are currently preparing for other projects already under contract.”

PTDR systems are in operation in California, Taiwan and China. Go to http://www.peat.com/chinasystem.html for a video of operations and acceptance test run data.

About PEAT International

PEAT International, Inc., headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, with offices in China, Taiwan and India, is a waste-to-energy (“WTE”) company with its two proprietary technologies – the Plasma Thermal Destruction and Recovery™ (“PTDR”) technology for the treatment and recycling of industrial, medical and other hazardous waste streams and the Thermal Volume Reduction & Conversion™ (“TVRC”) technology for municipal solid waste. For more information, contact Daniel Ripes, dripes@peat.com, at 847-559-8567 and visit www.peat.com.

Previously, this forum has demonstrated how plasma arc plasma gasification nearly eliminates dioxin formation, semi-volatile heavy metal compounds and other air emissions when processing various forms of industrial waste or hazardous waste.

Below is a summary of a June 2013 third party emissions testing conducted on the PTDR-100 plasma-arc, plasma gasification system located in Shanghai. The summary also compares the results to current European air emission regulations.

ND =”Not Detectable” with Limit in parentheses

It is worth noting that the above emissions for the PTDR plasma arc, plasma gasification system were measured when the syngas was thermally oxidized. It is worth noting that if the syngas is utilized in a gas engine or other syngas utilization equipment, then the only gas emissions associated with a PTDR plasma arc, plasma gasification system would be the exhaust from the engine or boiler, etc.

Medical and pharmaceutical waste comes from hospitals, doctors/dentists offices, skilled & unskilled nursing care, group practices, specialized out-patient services and veterinarians. Examples of medical waste are: soiled or blood soaked bandages, culture dishes and other glassware, discarded surgical gloves, and instruments (e.g. scalpels), needles, cultures, stocks, swabs used to inoculate cultures, removed body organs and lancets used to draw blood samples.

For medical waste generators (medium and large hospitals/health clinics or medical waste collectors), the current trend is clearly in the direction of greater efficiency in sorting. The pressure for cost containment has grown in the health care industry and the price for medical waste treatment and disposal has increased. It has been estimated that hospitals and long-term care (LTC) facilities in the US waste generate at least 125 million pounds of pharmaceuticals annually. Our research reflects that medical waste treatment systems are expected to experience high growth due to a growing and aging population, a rising incidence of chronic disease, and new requirements for disposal in community and home settings.

PEAT’s PTDR plasma-arc plasma gasification system in Sacramento, CA is currently permitted for sanitized medical waste treatment, among other waste streams. The PTDR plasma-arc plasma gasification technology has received numerous regulatory approvals throughout the globe, including the California Department of Public Health, which certified the technology as an alternative to incineration for medical waste treatment.

Since October 2011, PEAT has been performing small medical waste treatment campaigns. Most recently in August, PEAT hosted potential clients from Utah to witness a medical waste treatment campaign on waste supplied from the San Jose area.

PEAT’s plasma-arc plasma gasification system consists of DC-powered plasma-arc graphite electrodes rather than plasma torches, typically marketed by other companies. There are a number of benefits associated with using DC-powered plasma-arc electrodes.

Minimization of capital costs as plasma-arc graphite electrodes generate plasma-arcs directly with exposed anodes and cathodes without requiring an independent torch. Plasma torches are expensive and increase the capital costs associated with overall systems.

Minimization of operational costs as plasma-arc graphite electrodes require no water cooling or any externally-supplied carrier gas (i.e. argon or nitrogen). This increases the electrical to thermal conversion rates (typically seen around 85-90% in PTDR plasma-arc plasma gasification systems).

Plasma torches require water cooling, carrier gases and have lower efficiencies as their power output can be as low as 50% of the power input for small torches. This means that one half of the electricity of the plasma torch is dissipated to the cooling water or efficiency of the plasma-arc power supply.

Plasma pyrolysis and plasma-arc plasma gasification, like incineration, are options for recovering value from waste by thermal treatment. Both pyrolysis and plasma-arc plasma gasification convert feedstocks/wastes into energy by heating the waste under controlled conditions. Whereas incineration converts the input waste into a combusted flue-gas that can then be used to recover thermal energy (usually in the form of steam) and ash, pyrolysis and plasma-arc plasma gasification deliberately limits the conversion so that combustion does not take place directly. Instead, they convert the waste into potentially valuable intermediates that can be further processed for materials recycling or energy recovery. Pyrolysis and plasma-arc plasma gasification offer more scope for recovering products from waste than incineration.

One of the benefits associated with plasma-arc plasma gasification is that plasma-arc plasma gasification reactors do not require moving grates and the smaller volume of gases generated means that the plasma-arc plasma gasification reactors can accommodate the required minimum residence times in a smaller volume. Further, the smaller gas production and reducing environment within plasma-arc plasma gasification reactors does facilitate smaller sized air pollution control systems.