It sounds as if someone just dropped a tricycle into a meat grinder. Im sitting inside a narrow conference room at a research facility in Bristol, Connecticut, chatting with Joseph Longo, the founder and CEO of Startech Environmental Corporation. As we munch on takeout Subway sandwiches, a plate-glass window is the only thing separating us from the adjacent lab, which contains a glowing caldera of plasma three times as hot as the surface of the sun.
To compare this technology with Paul Pantone is absurd. There are more than 150 gasifiers operating around the world and gasification has been around for more than 50 years. This is one of the reasons why new technology is so difficult to launch. Well intentioned, but misinformed people make comments that cause concern with other ill informed people. The people reading or hearing them assume them to be true and the damage is done. The beauty of syngas is that not only can it be used to generate electricity, but it can also be used as the basic building blocks for ultraclean diesel and jet fuel. This is where the real returns on this technology will be made as electricity generate minimal returns compared to liquid fuels. We can create green fuels that are socially, economically and environmentally are better than biofuels while curing a major blight on our landscape. Whats more these fuels dont gel or cloud in cold weather, so have beeter properties for many North American cities andenvironments.
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