Plasma gasification, a gift to our present and our future

As a homeowner in the community who is living, and raising my family in the area, I have a vested interest in understanding the proposed Energy from Waste Facility to be built at the foot of Sherman north. Plasma Gasification (GasPlasma) sounded concerning when I first heard about it but I wanted to make sure I knew everything possible about the process to make sure my family and neighbours are safe and have no concerns for their health.

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I did countless hours of research, took every opportunity to hear more, invited the proponents to the Keith Community Hub meeting where we asked, and received answer to, every question we could think of.

What I found after all that was that GasPlasma has the potential to be a gift to our future. It's a Green and Clean technology, so there will be no effects to the current state of my community. It will provide an additional $500,000 per year in property taxes, lessening the reliance on the residential tax base. Over 100 construction jobs for the short term and then 30-50 new, permanent post-construction jobs will be created which would help to address the 7% unemployment rate in Hamilton.

All of this and the proponents are not asking for a dime from the City of Hamilton. It is a private sector enterprise.

In any internet search of Leveraged Green Energy, the proponent, it is clear that they preach and practice environmental de-risking world-wide.

GasPlasma is a unique configuration of well proven technologies that have been in use for decades. It doesn't use combustion at all and the process is conducted at atmospheric pressure so there is no potential for ash or explosive releases. Once the fuel moves through the plasma conversion process the unusable elements are forever entombed in the completely inert Plasmarok product. The Plasmarok itself has been tested to insure safety and can be used for other uses such as building aggregate. The resulting gases are further scrubbed and filtered using sophisticated techniques, commonly used in the industrial world, to capture any remaining toxins prior to being utilized in engines to produce energy.  As all of the remaining toxins have been removed, these engines run cleaner than natural gas.  

The Hamilton Port is home to over 120 businesses and a temporary stop for hundreds of vessels per year, all of which generate their own waste streams. Additional waste is available in the adjacent industrial lands. More than enough to be used as feed-stock for the proposed facility and since it all can be done on port lands it would have no impact on the surrounding area – except maybe for the better. The Energy from Waste Facility is being set up to process only the waste from the port and adjacent industrial lands. Instead of trying to find ways to support this industry there are members of city council doing everything they can to make the company feel unwelcome including the questioning of the zoning viability of the location. The property is zoned M5, which expressly allows a waste processing facility.     

If Hamilton really wants to be the “Ambitious City” that we claim to be perhaps instead of fearing things we don’t understand we should explore new possibilities. Perhaps it is reliant upon us all to do our research to remain informed. Continuing to bury our waste for future generations to deal with is not responsible or sustainable. Perhaps it is time to embrace unique approaches to our age old problems, rather than continuing to conduct our business in the same old ways.    

Stephen Rowe, vice-chair, Keith Community Hub

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