Plasco Energy Group

Plasco Energy Group Inc. is an innovative technology company based in Ottawa, Canada. Plasco’s conversion technology is a sustainable solution that helps communities achieve their landfill diversion and renewable energy goals. Plasco recovers the highest value from post-recycled waste and significantly reduces the negative impact waste has on the environment.

Plasco currently operates the world’s only commercial-scale conversion technology facility that converts waste into a synthetic gas that fuels GE Jenbacher engines to generate electricity.

The Plasco Conversion System is the result of over 30 years of experience withplasma technologies. Decades of research and development have been invested to develop breakthrough performance both economically and environmentally. Since 1986, we have operated research facilities in Ottawa and Spain where our process has been continuously tested and refined.

More than $390 million of equity capital has been committed to Plasco since 2005. In addition, public investment includes a $9.5 million grant fromSustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).

Our Business

Plasco Energy Group leverages strategic partnerships with developers to enable the global deployment of our world-leading waste conversion technology: the Plasco Conversion System.

Plasco’s business model is to deliver complete design of the Plasco Conversion System and to supply its core technology (ICARS), construction modules, technical support services, operations management and training.

We have teamed with industry-leading equipment and service providers to design Plasco Conversion Facilities with financial, performance and environmental guarantees. These guarantees lower risk for financiers, developers, local communities and end customers.

Plasco also provides development partners with comprehensive technical and commercial support services from project development through to commissioning, training and commercial operations.

Responsible Management of Waste and Resources
Until now, waste has been a problem typically managed by shipping it long distances for disposal. This results in serious emissions from trucking and shifts the environmental burden to areas that didn’t create the waste.

Power generation from waste in the past has been accomplished by using large incinerators that communities don’t want to be near, and electricity is often transmitted long distances back to urban areas. When electricity travels long distances, transmission line losses occur and costs increase in proportion to the distance travelled.

Plasco allows waste to be dealt with where it is created, and electricity to be generated where it is needed.

Our facilities can be distributed across light-industrial or commercial zones within city limits. Here’s why:

Facilities don’t emit odors; waste is stored for short periods of time inside a building with negative air pressure
Noise levels are very low; we are rated residential noise level at our property line
Ultra-low emissions come only from engine exhaust
Physical size of a facility is small; a typical facility requires about 10 acres of land.

The Plasco Advantage

The Plasco Advantage begins with our superior technology and environmental excellence. We also recognize that it takes more than technical proficiency to run a successful project. Success depends on understanding the local communities in which we work, communicating openly, and designing attractive sites.  We work with local consultants and developers who provide insight and guidance on in-territory issues and strategy as well as help lead the project development process.

Together with our partners, we work to build strong community support. Open and transparent community engagement is essential to planning, building, and operation of a facility.

We have teamed with industry-leading equipment and service providers to deliver Plasco Conversion Systems with financial, performance and environmental guarantees. These guarantees lower risk for financiers, developers, local communities and end customers.

95% of the waste processed by the Plasco Conversion System will be diverted from landfill and converted into useful products. Leading the way to a future without landfills, a Plasco Facility offers the following benefits to communities:

1. Improves local air quality and reduces a community’s carbon footprint
2. Curbs landfill growth and expansion
3. Preserves natural resources for future generations
4. Creates local jobs
5. Requires zero capital from the community
6. Provides budgetary certainty with predictable tipping fees

How is Plasco Different

Plasco’s non-incineration process is fundamentally different than any competing thermal technology. Rather than using plasma torches directly on the garbage, Plasco uses plasma only to refine the gases released from gasification and to create Plasco’s slag product. With the torches interacting only with the gas and remaining solids, there is lower electricity demand than competing technologies. The quality of Plasco’s fuel gas is highly controlled and consistent, producing fuel for a combined cycle power plant; internal combustion engines plus heat recovery steam generators. The process also yields other valuable products co-products including recyclable metal, slag suitable for abrasives, and recovered water.

Because the garbage is gasified and not burned, the multiple and costly pollution abatement systems required by incinerators can be replaced with single string units that yield class-leading environmental performance. The result is ultra-low emission engine exhaust that will meet or beat the world’s toughest environmental standards.

Environmental Performance

A significant part of Plasco’s philosophy is a commitment to using the best available technologies to minimize our facilities’ environmental footprint and to have an environmental performance that far exceeds regulatory standards.

Greenhouse Gas Reductions

Processing waste through the Plasco Conversion System reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in two ways. First, it eliminates the methane that would form if the waste were landfilled – this is significant since methane has a global warming potential 23 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). Second, power generated from our process displaces power from other sources such as coal. The result is that a Plasco Facility reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Air Emissions Performance

In a Plasco Facility, the air emissions are associated with ultra-low engine exhaust from generating electricity. Plasco has invested in the best available gas cleaning technologies to ensure that the syngas is clean prior to delivering it to the engines. Plasco is committed to going beyond compliance. Below is Plasco’s emission profile.