Gasification is a process that converts materials containing carbon such as petroleum, coal or biomass into carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
This can be done at extremely high temperature, up to 2,000 degrees centigrade with synthetic gas being the result.
This syngas is a fuel all by itself.
Syngas is primarily carbon monoxide and hydrogen (more than 85 percent by volume) and smaller quantities of carbon dioxide and methane.
Syngas can be used as a fuel to generate electricity or steam, or as a basic chemical building block for a multitude of uses.
When mixed with air, syngas can be used in gasoline or diesel engines with few modifications to the engine.
Basically, gasification is a very efficient method for extracting energy from many different types of organic materials, and also used as a clean waste management.
The advantage of gasification is that it is an environmentally clean way of disposing of waste and in addition it generates energy in the process.
Biomass gasification, usually not a useful fuel in itself, is one of newest technologies.
Instead of filling up our landfills and oceans with our waste products, simply put, the waste material is compacted and then burned at these super high heats and the end result is a win - win for our planet.
Our atmosphere does not suffer from pollution and in return we get usable energy sources.
Gasification of fossil fuels is currently widely used in many industries to generate electricity, however, almost any type of organic material can be used as the raw material for gasification, such as wood, biomass, or even plastic waste.
Several gasification processes for treatment of waste are under development as an alternative to the old incineration technique.
A major goal for waste gasification technologies is to reach a positive electric efficiency.
In other words, the high efficiency of converting syngas to electric power is counteracted by the large power consumption in the processing the waste.
There are seven facilities operating successfully in Japan at this time.