Trash to Ash and Energy

The Air Force (AF) is facing the challenge of costly and environmentally unsafe Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal methods on its AF bases. Particularly, forward operating bases (FOBs) resort to burning waste in open pits with economic, environmental and potential health impact. Emerging solutions such as Plasma Arc Gasification are expensive, require large scale plants while Pyrolysis technologies only work with limited types of plastic waste. With this effort, Phoenix Waste Solutions presents Phoenix, a clean, economical and deployable waste disposal machine which thermally reduces 4-8 tons of unsorted MSW – plastic, Styrofoam, food waste, even tires – by 97% of volume into non-toxic ash every 24 hours. It does not need any fuel to operate and produces only 17 pounds of CO2/ ton of waste compared to an incinerator which produces 0.7-1.7 tons of CO2/ton of waste (98% less greenhouse gas emissions). This is thanks to our novel ion furnace that generates heat up to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit to thermally degrade waste and simultaneously inhibit the formation of pollutants at a molecular level. The heat generated from the Phoenix can be used to generate electricity 5kWe-15kWe on AF bases and the ash can be upcycled as a construction material.