Technology

Background

Many of the contenders in the fight to replace landfills are new companies whose equipment converts waste using a high-temperature / low-oxygen process (called pyrolysis or gasification) with plasma as the main source of heat. The general term for this is Plasma Waste Conversion. The details of each technology vary, as do the results produced. The promise PWC holds is that of turning yesterday's garbage into today's very green energy source. That's “green” as in ecologically sound. It is also “green” as in highly profitable, once someone gets it right.

The main output of the PWC process is Syngas (a mix of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide). The goal is to produce more energy than is needed to support plant operations. Any extra production can be used to generate electric power, or create synthetic jet fuel, both of which have ready markets. PWC systems also typically produce elemental sulfur (fertilizer), aggregate (road fill), and raw metals (that can be sent to a refinery for recycling). Sales of these materials supplement those from excess Syngas production.

Over the course of the last few years, the Shiva PWC team has worked to develop its own champion solution. They have combined best-of-breed technologies with a compelling business model and superior whole-product considerations to produce a system that delivers on the promise so many others have tried and failed to fulfill.

Dollars and Sense

The current market price of a PWC facility is around one million dollars for each metric-tonne-per-hour of capacity (roughly $175 per person served). This has been a significant barrier to the construction of these facilities. Shiva PWC systems are expected to cost less than one tenth of that amount. This allows us to do something that no one else can.

Unlike it's competitors, Shiva PWC will not sell processing facilities. It will build, operate, and maintain them at its own expense while paying the landfill operator (or trash collector) a portion of gross byproduct sales as a commission. In exchange for allowing a Shiva PWC plant to be placed at their site, the landfill operator turns a cost center into a cash cow. How big a bovine? Enough to more than double their total annual profits.

The standard Shiva PWC municipal plant is expected to process approximately 60 metric-tonnes-per-hour, enough to handle the waste from around 400,000 people (in a modern urban population). The average wholesale price of jet fuel over the last year was just over $1.40. Presuming that it stays relatively stable, each such facility will produce annual profits (EBITDA) of around $43 million, just over $100 per person served. Construction costs for new units will be recouped in less than six months.

Incremental Improvement

Technology-wise, with a few significant exceptions, there is nothing new in the Shiva PWC system. It is a unique combination of well-proven approaches, equipment, and processing strategies. While the individual pieces have achieved commercial success in their respective areas, this will be the first time that they are assembled in this particular way; the first time that the unique synergies of doing so will be realized.

There are real engineering challenges ahead, but no significant technological blocks are expected. A substantial amount of work has already been done to vet the basic approach. What remains is along the lines of refinement, not new discovery. The question of “Will it work” has been answered. It will. But, there are still questions regarding how to best utilize the unique features of the system and maximize its performance.

Although the technology is well-proven, a proof of concept system will be constructed to demonstrate the overall effectiveness of the unique combination of elements and to allow optimization of system operating parameters (temperature, pressure, feed rate, etc).

Other PWC systems use a batch process in which all of the waste is put into a chamber, then heated, then cooled, then removed. This is inefficient, time consuming, and increases both parts fatigue and associated maintenance costs.

By contrast, the Shiva PWC systems utilizes a continuous flow process in which materials come in as trash and go out as cash (or something that can be turned into cash easily). The unique Shiva PWC system reduces operating costs, speeds up processing, and produces a higher quality and quantity of the most valuable byproduct: Syngas.

A portion of this Syngas will be used to generate the electricity needed for plant operation. The surplus will either be converted on site to jet fuel for the wholesale market or used to generate electricity for the wholesale power grid. Sales projections reflect our expectation that the system will require 90% of its Syngas production to power itself, allowing the sale of the remaining 10% as jet fuel. This is considered to be a very conservative estimate.

Engineers will constantly be developing improvements to the processing equipment. Innovative ideas are at the core of the Shiva PWC business. Management is committed to an ongoing process of generating new ones. As they are developed, these new designs will be rolled out to the production lines and used to build new processing plants. For particularly valuable improvements, upgrade kits will be developed and used to retrofit existing facilities.