The are a number of proposed solutions for converting waste to energy. Unfortunately, most of them have significant issues that make them less than desirable, environmentally. For example, anaerobic digesters are unable to handle such wastes as wood or plastics, so they can't deal with very much of the overall waste that is produced. Also, the city of Honolulu considered a plasma arc/torch proposal for processing municipal solid waste, and found that it would significantly boost waste disposal costs without offering worthwhile environmental advantages. Simple gasification technology's high efficiency of converting syngas to electric power is counteracted by significant power consumption in the waste preprocessing, by production of large amounts of pure oxygen, and by gas cleaning. Incineration can produce fly ash and other airborne pollutants, including heavy metals and fine particles.

Additionally, a major problem with most of these technologies is that they are so expensive that payback periods are long or non-existent, making them financially infeasible for most waste-to-energy applications.

What we really need is a solution that reduces the volume of waste products without contributing to air pollution—while providing a good Return on Investment.

Our certified test results (pdf)—from the independent third party EcoLab—prove just how clean the Simeken renewable waste to energy technology is. We are further improving our demonstration plant, and are beginning to test a more extensive variety of waste materials. This test program will produce certified results that meet or exceed the requirements of the exacting California EPA, the World Bank, the World Health Organization and EU standards.