Environmentally-Beneficial Smouldering for Converting Organic Wastes and Pollutants to Energy and Resources

每个加拿大人每年产生850公斤的垃圾，其中四分之三被填埋。因此，加拿大每年掩埋250亿公斤的垃圾——相当于填满7万个奥运会规模的游泳池。其中大部分是有机废物（纺织品、污泥、纸张和木材废物、农业废物），大多数来自工业。这种做法是不可持续的：它产生温室气体，消耗能源，污染环境，损害我们的健康，并使经济付出代价。此外，它还掩埋了急需的资源，如金属和土壤养分。在世界发达国家中，加拿大在有效废物管理方面排名最后。可持续发展的未来需要从“一次性”社会转向“循环”经济，其中一种过程的残留物成为另一种过程的原材料。为了实现这一目标，我们需要发现将废物转化为能源和资源的创新方法。这项研究探索了一种全新的废物转化理念。闷烧是将烧烤中的木炭慢慢转化为热量的过程。由于不受控制的闷烧会导致火灾，所以它通常被认为是一个应该避免的过程。然而，格哈德博士带领世界发展有意的、可控的闷烧作为一种工程技术来解决环境问题。格哈德博士的加拿大工业合作伙伴现在正在清理世界各地的污染场所，使用闷烧来摧毁工业遗留在地下的有毒化学物质。这项研究以一种全新的方式探索了故意闷烧：将废物转化为能源和资源的方法。阴燃有潜力成为一种非常高效和廉价的从废物中产生能量的方法，因为它产生的能量远远超过它所消耗的能量。此外，它还具有使资源（例如金属和肥料）可用于回收的能力。此外，阴燃预计将破坏废物中使其有害的污染物，从而消除毒性并使其能够安全再利用。***这项研究有望产生一种全新的废物管理过程，这可能对实现可持续的循环经济产生巨大的好处。其结果将带来巨大的环境效益，包括转移垃圾填埋场的垃圾，减少导致全球变暖的气体，回收所需的能源和资源，消除渗入我们的水、土壤和空气的有毒污染物。此外，它们将产生重大的经济效益。垃圾转化再利用产生的就业岗位是垃圾掩埋的十倍，回收的能源和资源具有很高的市场价值。此外，与污染场地清理一样，加拿大公司将在全球范围内引领新技术的发展，以独特的方式填补巨大的市场，在解决全球环境挑战的同时，在国内创造就业机会和增长。

Each Canadian produces 850 kg of waste annually, of which three-quarters is landfilled. As a result, Canada buries 25 billion kg of waste - equal to filling 70,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools - each year. Much of this is organic waste (textiles, sludge, paper and wood waste, agricultural waste) and the majority is from industry. This practice is not sustainable: it produces greenhouse gases, consumes energy, pollutes the environment, impairs our health, and costs the economy. Furthermore, it buries badly needed resources such as metals and soil nutrients. Of the world's developed countries, Canada ranks last for effective waste management. A sustainable future requires moving from a “throwaway” society to a “circular” economy, where the residue from one process becomes the raw materials of another. To achieve this we need to discover innovative ways to convert waste into energy and resources. ***This research explores an entirely new waste conversion idea. Smouldering is the process that slowly converts charcoal in your barbeque into heat. Since uncontrolled smouldering can lead to fires, it is usually considered a process to be avoided. However, Dr. Gerhard has led the world in developing intentional, controlled smouldering as an engineering technology to solve environmental problems. Dr. Gerhard's Canadian industry partners are now cleaning up polluted sites around the world using smouldering to destroy toxic chemicals industry has left in the ground. This research explores intentional smouldering in a whole new way: as a method to convert waste to energy and resources. Smouldering has the potential to be a very efficient and cheap process for generating energy from waste, since it generates much more energy than it uses. In addition, it has the ability to make resources (e.g., metals and fertilizer) available for recovery. Moreover, smouldering is expected to destroy pollutants in the waste that makes it hazardous, thereby eliminating the toxicity and enabling its safe reuse. ***This research is expected to generate an entirely new waste management process, one that could be of tremendous benefit for achieving a sustainable, circular economy. The outcomes will provide enormous environmental benefit by diverting waste from landfills, reducing the gases that contribute to global warming, recovering needed energy and resources, and eliminating toxic pollutants that otherwise leach into our water, soil, and air. Moreover, they will generate major economic benefits. Waste conversion and reuse produces ten times as many jobs as waste burial while the energy and resources recovered have high market value. Furthermore, as with polluted site cleanup, Canadian companies would lead the worldwide delivery of a new technology that uniquely fills a large market, creating jobs and growth at home while solving environmental challenges worldwide.