Can plasma transform the clean energy market?
A UK-based pioneering company in the waste-to-energy market has developed a unique clean energy technology using plasma, known as the "fourth state of matter" after solids, liquids and gases, to transform household and commercial industrial waste into energy. Advanced Plasma Power (APP) has developed the "Gasplasma" process which converts the waste to a gas to generate electricity directly in gas engines, turbines or fuel cells. According to the company, the process is modular and scalable resulting in "minimal" emissions and therefore minimal impact on the environment. Demonstrating that Gasplasma has the potential to be a game changer in the clean energy market, APP was awarded an £11 million grant from the UK Government in September to design, develop and build a plant that will turn household and business waste into compressed bio methane, using the Gasplasma process.

Advanced Plasma Power (APP) has developed a process called Gasplasma, which combines gasification and plasma treatment to convert waste into two products: a hydrogen-rich synthesis gas and an inert product it calls Plasmarok. The firm says it has applications as a high value construction material.

To many, the concept of plasma being used to transform waste into energy is science fiction. Yet one British company is using it to do just that.

According to the company, the process involves several steps. After waste has been processed to recover any materials that can be recycled, the remainder is turned into what APP calls a refuse derived fuel, or RDF.

A gasifier heats the RDF up and turns it into a "crude syngas", which is moved to a Gasplasma plasma conversion unit.

APP says that "intense heat from the plasma arc" – which is greater than 8,000 degrees centigrade – as well as intense ultraviolet light of the plasma results "in the complete cracking of tar substances and the breakdown of char materials."

The by-products of this cracking are a clean syngas and Plasmarok.

"Household waste, stuff that we throw away, commercial industrial waste, even nastier stuff – hazardous waste – can all be basically transformed," Rolf Stein, CEO of Advanced Plasma Power, told CNBC in a phone interview.

To give a few examples, wastes such as creosote, oils and sludge can be used in the process to produce energy.

According to the company, the process – which it says is modular and scalable – results in "minimal" emissions.

Stein added that one avenue that the company was pursuing was the conversion of the synthesis gas into advanced biofuels such as compressed bio methane.