WILTON, Conn., Dec. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Startech Environmental
Corporation announced today that it has signed a contract valued at
approximately $500,000 to produce and demonstrate a commercial-size
StarCell(TM) system for the U.S. Department of Energy to produce hydrogen
derived from processing waste through the Startech Plasma Converter(TM). The
work will be performed in Startech's Technology Park facility in Bristol,
Connecticut with the Company's StarCell partner, Media and Process Technology
Inc. The program is scheduled for completion in six months.
Waste will be put into the Startech Plasma Converter where it will be
irreversibly destroyed and converted into Plasma Converter Gas (PCG)(TM). PCG
is a clean synthesis gas mixture rich in hydrogen. The PCG will then be fed
into the Company's StarCell system to separate the hydrogen from the PCG to
produce StarCell Hydrogen(TM) for energy and power. The balance of the PCG,
comprised principally of carbon-based molecules, can also be used for energy
and power.
Karl N. Hale, Startech VP of Engineering, said, "The support of the
Department of Energy will help move our StarCell system much closer to full
scale production and deployment. Our principal product, the Plasma Converter
System, safely processes wastes of all sorts. In a manner of speaking, when
StarCell is joined to the Plasma Converter, you can literally throw banana
skins in one end and get hydrogen out the other."
What is StarCell?
StarCell is the Company's proprietary ceramic filtration system; it is not
a fuel cell. It is a patented hydrogen-selective membrane filter that
separates the hydrogen from the Plasma Converter Gas (PCG)(TM). PCG is the
synthesis-fuel gas mixture, produced by the Plasma Converter when it processes
waste.
The Startech Plasma Converter(TM) destroys wastes by its pollution-free
process of molecular dissociation during which it forms those wastes into
valuable commercial products that include PCG (Plasma Converter Gas). It is a
clean synthesis gas mixture, rich in hydrogen. PCG is a valuable syn-gas as
it is, but StarCell increases its value by its ability to pull out the
hydrogen.
Beyond its use with the Plasma Converter, StarCell can also be used, stand
alone, as a low cost method of separating hydrogen from the syn-gas produced
by various coal gasification processes.
StarCell Hydrogen can be used in the emerging "distributed power
generation" (DG) markets as a low cost, pristine fuel to power automotive,
stationary and portable fuel cells, as well as Internal Combustion Engine
(ICE) vehicles.
What is a fuel cell?
The fuel cell was invented about 150 years ago in England by Sir William
Grove. He called it his "gaseous battery" to distinguish it from another
invention of his, our every day electric storage battery. The fuel cell is an
electrochemical device that combines hydrogen with oxygen to produce
electricity. Air can even be used as an oxygen source. The principal
byproducts are water and heat. It is hydrogen that is the fuel in a fuel
cell. It is the bonding together of the hydrogen and oxygen that produces
the power in the form of electricity. The basic process is efficient and
pollution free.
Why is hydrogen important?
The use of hydrogen to power vehicles eliminates tail-pipe pollution and
dependence on foreign oil. Used to produce stationary power, it will help
clean up the air and will be the critical contributor to the development of a
pollution-free "distributed power generation" industry. Hydrogen, the most
pristine of all the fuels, when combined with oxygen to produce power results
in only heat and H2O...water. It produces pollution-free electricity in fuel
cells. Pound for pound, hydrogen contains more energy than any of the other
fuels by far.
In addition to the importance of the role it will play in clean power, it
is also a basic material used in many industrial processes to make many of the
products we use in our lives every day.
How hydrogen is currently produced
The Sun and stars are almost pure hydrogen. The paradox is that while
hydrogen is the most abundant material in the universe, it is not readily
accessible. Nearly all of the hydrogen produced today is made from fossil
fuels, natural gas among them. These hydrocarbon fossil fuels consist
primarily of molecules made up of carbon and hydrogen. The products of
reformation are hydrogen gas and carbon-gas species. The hydrocarbon
molecules are "reformed" with steam and/or oxygen in a complex thermo-chemical
reformation process consisting of many steps.
Hydrogen in your garbage can
Mr. Hale, also said, "Most household and industrial wastes are packed with
hydrogen. Even landfills can be mined so that the recovered trash can be
processed by the Plasma Converter and StarCell to unlock an abundance of
hydrogen.
In the process of safely destroying wastes, the Plasma Converter System
converts them into the hydrogen rich synthesis gas called PCG, at very little
additional costs, in a process that is safer than environmental standards.
This is a powerful commercial force for producing a low cost, renewable and
pollution-free source of hydrogen.
Converting renewable resources into hydrogen is an important goal of the
'Hydrogen Economy.' Waste is a valuable, ever-present and increasing
renewable resource. The use of waste for hydrogen will decrease our
dependence on dwindling reserves of fossil fuels.
One key to achieving a Sustainable Society and meeting the energy needs of
the new millennium is the widespread use of hydrogen as the primary energy
source. The concept is called the Hydrogen Economy. In the Hydrogen Economy,
hydrogen -- either liquefied or as a gas -- is the principal source of
chemical energy, replacing natural gas, heating oil, gasoline and other
petroleum products. Applications include electrical generation, industrial
process heating, residential heating, transportation fuel, and many more. In
this view, the demand for hydrogen will grow dramatically as we move forward.
We believe the 'Plasma Converter-StarCell Process' will be helpful in opening
the way to a Hydrogen Economy by increasing the availability of low-cost
hydrogen to meet the expanding demand.
It may be helpful to recognize that traditional hydrogen reformation
processes require purchases of fossil fuel feed-stocks that impact the cost
and availability of hydrogen. StarCell Hydrogen doesn't have that problem.
Our Plasma Converter market is made up of customers who generate waste, and
customers who process waste. Many wastes are excellent feed-stocks for
hydrogen. Customers who generate waste don't have the feed-stock expense when
PCG is produced; as a matter of fact, they save the money they would otherwise
pay to others to accept their waste. Customers who process waste get paid for
accepting and processing the waste of others, and also produce PCG. In either
case, when the PCG is used in StarCell to produce hydrogen for sale, the
customers can produce it at a much lower cost because they don't have the cost
burden of fossil fuel feed-stock purchases.
Our Plasma Converters are being marketed commercially now. In addition to
the money gained processing waste in the Converter, our customers will also be
able make money using StarCell to sell hydrogen."
About Startech Environmental Corp:
Startech is an environmental technology company engaged in the production
and sale of its innovative, proprietary plasma processing equipment known as
the Plasma Converter System. This ruggedly built system achieves closed-loop
elemental recycling to safely and irreversibly destroy hazardous and non-
hazardous waste, solids, liquids, gases, and industrial by-products while
converting them in to useful commercial products that can include chemical
feed-stocks, synthesis gas, hydrogen and energy for use and for sale.
The system is available for demonstration, by appointment, at the
Company's facilities in Technology Park in Bristol, Connecticut.
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including
statements regarding the Company's plans and expectations regarding the
development and commercialization of its Plasma Converter(TM) technology. All
forward-looking statements are subject to risk and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that
could cause such a difference include, without limitation, general risks
associated with product development, manufacturing, rapid technological change
and competition as well as other risks set forth in the Company's filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements
contained herein speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company
expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any
updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the
Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on
which any such statement is based.
SOURCE Startech Environmental
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Related links:
http://www.startech.net
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/113537.html
CONTACT:
Joseph F. Longo of Startech Environmental,
1-888-807-9443, or +1-203-210-0141
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