Malaysian waste to energy company, Octagon Consolidated Bhd, has started to build a US$248 million plasma gasification facility in Sri Lanka, according to a report in the country’s Sunday Observer.
The 1000 tonne per day facility will be use gasification technology to treat locally collected municipal solid waste and generate a minimum of 40 MW of electricity which will be sold to the Ceylon Electricity Board.
According to the company, it licences its Advanced Thermal Gasification Process technology from Green Energy and Technology Sdn. Bhd.
The company says that the plasma torch technology is capable of producing very high temperatures in the order of 10,000 degrees Celsius within the plasma torch and as high as 8000 degrees Celsius at the visible plasma gas tip.
The temperature profile in the gasifier is sustained by using thermal energy from the plasma gas which in turn breaks down the molecular compounds in a very short period of time, often milliseconds. According to the company, this avoids the formation of secondary combustion products and the production of polluting flue gas.
According to the report, Octagon says that construction is due to start in Colombo in the second quarter of next year, with the facility completed by the second quarter of 2014.
