Trash to gas: Actor backs green technology
By Kristin Day
The Daily Reflector
Friday, November 5, 2010
Creating fuel from everyday trash sounds like something straight out of a science fiction movie, so it may be fitting that an actor would introduce such a technology to the people of eastern North Carolina.
John O'Hurley (known as J. Peterman on “Seinfeld,” host of “Family Fued” and contestant on “Dancing with the Stars”) was in Washington, N.C., on Friday demonstrating the waste-to-energy technology his company Energy-Inc. is bringing to the area. The open event was held at the company's Advanced Thermal Conversion Technology (ATCT) facility, located at the Whitehurst Lake House, 903 Whitehurst Lane.
O'Hurley likens the technology to the flux capacitor envisioned in the “Back to the Future” movies. Partnered with EJE Recycling and Disposal of Greenville, tons of local waste will be brought to Energy-Inc. daily and transformed into biodiesel fuel, mostly as electricity. O'Hurley says the company will begin installing equipment in early 2011 and it should be running within the next six months. The process also creates 75 jobs at the C&D Landfill, which is owned by EJE.
During Friday's event, O'Hurley gave a demonstration of the company's portable scale, which is about the size of half of a storage unit. It can transform two tons of waste into energy through gasification rather than incineration; meaning there is no flame but instead, the garbage is passed through a heated chamber and synthetic gas is created.
“We bring that (scale) all around the country to demonstrate the technology and to show exactly how it works,” O'Hurley said by phone Friday morning. “Also, to show how clean it is, the fact is that there are near zero emissions out of the waste-energy process. So that will be there and we'll be throwing all different forms of waste in it from sewage to tires to regular garbage, to show the machine handles all of the these things with the same effect.”
Along with the benefit of reducing the country's dependence on foreign oil, O'Hurley said ATCT could also make landfills obsolete within the next decade.
“I think as we deploy this technology all around the country in the next five to 10 years, I think it (the landfill) will pretty much be a thing of the past by then,” O'Hurley said. “I think we will pretty much zero-out the need for landfills rather quickly, once you understand that you make more money using our process.”
O'Hurley, who says he has controlling interest in several companies with promising ideas, said his attraction to waste-energy technology began when he was a boy curious about where trash goes. Now, he wants to be able to tell his own son that there's a better solution.
“I have a 31/2-year-old son and when he asks me where does the garbage go, all I can tell him is that we burn it or we bury it,” O'Hurley said. “I'd like to have a new answer for him now — that instead of doing that, we can actually use our waste — which is kind of a limitless supply — to reduce our dependence on other forms of energy which are more expensive and bring in many more complications, like foreign oil.”
Energy-Inc. is a Nevada-based renewable energy company, primarily focused on energy infrastructure development with an emphasis on design, construction and management of Advanced Thermal Conversion Technology (ATCT) plants. The ATCT system can convert all forms of waste feedstock (except nuclear) into clean, renewable energy. Energy-Inc. is headed by president and CEO Kim Kirkendall, with O'Hurley as partner.
Find more information about Energy-Inc. at www.energy-inc.com.
Contact Kristin Day at kday@reflector.com or (252) 329-9579.
By Kristin Day
The Daily Reflector
Friday, November 5, 2010
Creating fuel from everyday trash sounds like something straight out of a science fiction movie, so it may be fitting that an actor would introduce such a technology to the people of eastern North Carolina.
John O'Hurley (known as J. Peterman on “Seinfeld,” host of “Family Fued” and contestant on “Dancing with the Stars”) was in Washington, N.C., on Friday demonstrating the waste-to-energy technology his company Energy-Inc. is bringing to the area. The open event was held at the company's Advanced Thermal Conversion Technology (ATCT) facility, located at the Whitehurst Lake House, 903 Whitehurst Lane.
O'Hurley likens the technology to the flux capacitor envisioned in the “Back to the Future” movies. Partnered with EJE Recycling and Disposal of Greenville, tons of local waste will be brought to Energy-Inc. daily and transformed into biodiesel fuel, mostly as electricity. O'Hurley says the company will begin installing equipment in early 2011 and it should be running within the next six months. The process also creates 75 jobs at the C&D Landfill, which is owned by EJE.
During Friday's event, O'Hurley gave a demonstration of the company's portable scale, which is about the size of half of a storage unit. It can transform two tons of waste into energy through gasification rather than incineration; meaning there is no flame but instead, the garbage is passed through a heated chamber and synthetic gas is created.
“We bring that (scale) all around the country to demonstrate the technology and to show exactly how it works,” O'Hurley said by phone Friday morning. “Also, to show how clean it is, the fact is that there are near zero emissions out of the waste-energy process. So that will be there and we'll be throwing all different forms of waste in it from sewage to tires to regular garbage, to show the machine handles all of the these things with the same effect.”
Along with the benefit of reducing the country's dependence on foreign oil, O'Hurley said ATCT could also make landfills obsolete within the next decade.
“I think as we deploy this technology all around the country in the next five to 10 years, I think it (the landfill) will pretty much be a thing of the past by then,” O'Hurley said. “I think we will pretty much zero-out the need for landfills rather quickly, once you understand that you make more money using our process.”
O'Hurley, who says he has controlling interest in several companies with promising ideas, said his attraction to waste-energy technology began when he was a boy curious about where trash goes. Now, he wants to be able to tell his own son that there's a better solution.
“I have a 31/2-year-old son and when he asks me where does the garbage go, all I can tell him is that we burn it or we bury it,” O'Hurley said. “I'd like to have a new answer for him now — that instead of doing that, we can actually use our waste — which is kind of a limitless supply — to reduce our dependence on other forms of energy which are more expensive and bring in many more complications, like foreign oil.”
Energy-Inc. is a Nevada-based renewable energy company, primarily focused on energy infrastructure development with an emphasis on design, construction and management of Advanced Thermal Conversion Technology (ATCT) plants. The ATCT system can convert all forms of waste feedstock (except nuclear) into clean, renewable energy. Energy-Inc. is headed by president and CEO Kim Kirkendall, with O'Hurley as partner.
Find more information about Energy-Inc. at www.energy-inc.com.
Contact Kristin Day at kday@reflector.com or (252) 329-9579.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.