Future Fuels, Inc. plans to make ethanol from waste using a plasma converter system

This deserves watching to see if it is a technology that reduces ethanol production cost and impoves the energy balance. -- Jeffrey Goettemoeller
Future Fuels, Inc. and Startech Environmental Corp. form Global Strategic Alliance: "The heart of Startech's Plasma Converter System contains a plasma field that reaches temperatures up to 30,000 degrees Centigrade. The plasma breaks down feedstock materials-such as waste coal, used tires, wood wastes, raw sewage, municipal solid wastes, biomass, discarded roofing shingles, coal waste known as culm, discarded corn stalks, and other agricultural by-products-to their core elements in a clean and efficient manner. The resulting Plasma Converted Gas(tm), a rich mixture of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, is the input for FFI's catalytic ethanol synthesis process. FFI's approach, a modified Fischer-Tropsch process similar in nature to one Dow Chemical pioneered in the mid 1980s, applies heat, pressure and a catalyst to chemically transform the Plasma Converted Gas into ethanol. From start to finish, the conversion process from waste feedstocks to Plasma Converted Gas and finally to ethanol is safe and environmentally friendly. FFI's Toms River facility, employing Startech's Plasma Converter System technology, will become the flagship model for building and operating many waste-to-ethanol conversion facilities domestically and internationally."