It’s difficult to believe you’ve worked in a WTE facility, the misinformation you’ve spouted out and ignorance you’ve displayed about the Dynamis fiasco give off the odor of a Dynamis corporate or county minion.

You are splitting hairs for the sake of distraction… and venting anger at someone who dare point out concerns. You have cherry-picked your rebuttal points too. I’m not running for office, I just want people to open this up and smell the trash burning. I urge readers to view the links I posted for valid info/facts. There are so very very many more sources out there too. Also consider efficiency in terms of return on investment $$ in addition to BTU recovery. The biggest argument against this idea is that our local power producer has zero interest in the technology… and they have a very sharp pencil.

Gasification of trash and tires is a dirty nasty messy expensive process of trying to keep hazmat inside a big tin can. Something best done on the fantail of a ship or Nome AK as an alternative to throwing the raw waste into the sea or dumping it on the permafrost. There is only a tiny little market for these gizmos however so the big companies have near zero interest. Comparing a trash burning (gasification/oxidation) plant to a new NG plant: Spokane trash plant is 13% efficient, the new IP NG plant is over 60%, a new NG furnace for residential home is over 90%.

We do not NEED nor WANT the extra expense or pollution in the Boise area. If you want it here, then pay for it yourself instead of using half-baked commissioners to ram it through and pay for it too. If this was a great idea we would have heard all about it on the news before any commissioner actions ever took place.

My boat is sailing, chat with you all when we resurface in a few months,

ttfn and Merry Christmas!

PS: One last point. And perhaps one for a contract lawyer. Why doesn’t this technology get marketed to the federal government. I can’t find it anywhere that the feds or military has bought one of these plants for large scale use. Is there something legally different about making a sale to the feds?

PPS: Can anyone tell my why my 1970 428 Ford (23mpg) got better millage than my Honda V-6? (17mpg). One was painted green and shook the earth. The other is marketed as green, cost too much, and makes a frightening revvvving noise while gently passing 45mph.

Trash rates in Spokane? Yes these are from WM but it fails to say why these rates are what they are. They are not “4” times higher as stated in earlier posts.

I want to know what the “questions” are in the area of trash burning. The recent construction of the waste to energy facility on the east coast(Baltimore) follows the same emmision guidelines as the new power plant west of Boise. This is not new technology. It is actually very refined. This goes back to my original question that neither sam or Zippo have answered. Do either one of you know how one works and what the pollution controls are.

“Gut” feelings are fine but they are trumped by facts. I am not argueing about the funding or the price paid for the MW’s produced by one. I am merely correcting your inaccuracies. They are not a science project, they are not built by GE or Siemens, they are numerous nationwide, one was just commisssioned near Baltimore, NG and O2 are not injected, the “chimney” emmissions are the same as coal.

I am not sure what your comment on gassification is about. Please enlighten me.

To reiterate, I am not agueing public funding or electric rates. I am trying to dispell rumors about waste to energy with facts. To argue that public funding shouldn’t be used and that it will increase rates by stating the process is a “science project” and other such inaccuracies is wrong in my opinion. Wheelabrator in Spokane offers tours upon request and I would assume the new plant west of Boise would offer similiar.

I only ask that before you write about the evils of waste to energy or how a combined cycle power plant (in New Plymouth)please have accurate facts. I can say with certainty that what you have written regarding both is highly inaccurate.

http://wmnorthwest.com/spokane/service.html

The proposed Ada trash plant was to have Name Plate power of 20MW when not down for cleanings. That’s about the same as 3 of the largest wind turbines. The new NG plant built recently west of Boise (caused a bump on our power bills) is Name Plated for 300 to 330 MW, with expandable capacity as technology improves (additional core units are also often added when growth needed). It is used as a Peak Power plant, thus not used as efficiently as it would be if fired up all the time and taking full advantage of secondary heat recovery systems like most newer Base Power NG and coal plants. This new NG plant is based on a single huge gas turbine engine, very much the same as a aircraft engine. It takes only a handful of people to run it and is very very clean. 300-330MW is fairly small as far as grid power plants go.

I will attach a few general links which you can read to understand some of the things you inquire about. My primary reasons for opposing this plant are:

1) We have terrible air quality due to geographic features and this will add to the problem.
2) The county should not be a bank for new ideas/businesses.
2a) I am also apposed to Boise using public money to build a baseball stadium for a private business. I’m not apposed to any business which can make it’s own way without direct or indirect government aid. This of course puts me in opposition to nearly any corporate welfare/farmer-rancher welfare/minimum wage/etc. Exceptions to this for me are public works and utilities where one premium system of roads/power grids/communication grids/water pipelines etc. is better than attempting to have competing and redundant systems of such large expense for these core services. However, even in these core service areas, some competition seems to keep rates lower. (I thank god everyday that the government does not run the grocery stores like they tried to do in the USSR as the more they have encroached into the fine details in recent years the more my costs have gone up.)
3) There were efforts to keep the public away from the trash burner approval process with the commish basically telling the public to go blow when cornered by good questions.
4) Power produced was to be bought for much higher than the going rate (forced on IP by silly green power law) and would result in higher electric bills.
5) Higher trash collection fees?
6) Lots of other stuff which does not pass the gut check because so many very smart people are saying whoa this is not adding up.
7) Had the trash burner folk set up their business on a private land with private money and were not worsening our pollution problems, I’d have no issue with it. There are still too many questions in this area, and using the commish to stiff arm the public is not helping them.
8) Bozo was a business that made money without government help and without harming the environment. Thank you for the complement!

There are fuel gasifiers available on the market, but they are not being snapped up because there are so few situations were they have an advantage over other processes. I think advances in technology will change this eventually, but conducting R&D is not what I pay Ada county for.

http://spokanewastetoenergy.com/WastetoEnergy.htm

http://www.idahopower.com/AboutUs/EnergySources/OurPowerPlants/default.cfm

http://www.energy.siemens.com/br/en/power-generation/fuel-gasifier/

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/413606/converting-garbage-into-fuel/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_station

Zippo, it aint Obama whois getting rid of coal. It is the EPA regualtions. You sir are WRONG about the combustion of trash. Tires are not allowed! NG and O2 do not need to be injected. GE does not build these plants and neither does Siemens. You tell me that it is an insignicant source of energy and I will assume you mean “power to the grid”. How many megawatts do you consider not significant?

I asked you two bozos questions to see if you knew the answers to the questions and you do not! You claim to have the answers yet don’t even know the basics.

Let me ask again. Do you chicago sam or Zippo know how a waste to energy facility works? Yes or no. Don’t give me one of you lame answers by stating that I can find this info out by asking blah blah. If you read my original post you will see that I have operated 2 of these plants. I have a total of 7 years in operations of these plants. This makes me an expert.

MODERATOR NOTE–I will allow this comment and a reply, but no name calling. Dosresarch is out of line for “BOZO” comment and risks “timeout” at this holiday season. Forceful dialog, but no names please!

Trash is a terrible fuel which is why they wanted to burn lots of tires too. Tires are a great fuel but very very toxic, so now they cannot burn them per aggreement with Ada county. Thus they will need to push other fuels into the mix like NG and use lots of Oxygen to get it hot enough to dispose of the trash. So it’s basically a big incinerator. Hardly a green power source.

I wounder why GE is not building these all over the country instead of the guys with the temporary address in Eagle.

Further, Bammie will not be able to get rid of coal or oil or gasoline or guns or Bibles in the few years he has remaining to damage the country. He might even lose the Senate in two years. And will likely spend most of his remaining years hoping to look better than Jimmy Carter.