Unlike the intermittent solar and wind pathway, sourced hydrogen renewable energy ASMARA and TITAN produce their hydrogen-rich producers gas [on demand] and is classified as base-load power plant. The ASMARA and TITAN back-end technology is certified and deployed in more than 30 countries today worldwide. Here in Poland TITAN on which the ASMARA platform was founded has been certified as high efficiency, low impact and 100% renewable. ASMARA is referred to as a “carbon negative” process by bio-engineering scientists because it converts way more waste carbon into new materials than it produces itself during all of the processes it performs
ASMARA consists of two production islands each supporting 3 pairs of proprietary Hydrogen Producer’s Gas lines. Island one is dedicated to the production of all of the Hydrogen Producer’s Gas which is needed to be converted into electricity and heat to power ASMARA and its process and it does this by burning Hydrogen Producer Gas in hydrogen gas engines. Island two is dedicated to producing all of the Hydrogen Producer’s Gas to feed the Microbial Fermentation Tanks.
Microbial Fermentation of Hydrogen Producers Gas and other carbon-rich industrial gases already produced millions of gallons of Ethanol for fuel blending and for up-cycling to an alternative Sustainable Aircraft Fuel [SAF]. The process is already a success and as SAF and the science around it matures the bio-chemical business is expanding rapidly, Hydrogen Producer’s Gas to Microbial Fermentation will soon become the ubiquitous sustainable solution for all manner of fuels, chemicals and materials.
The Microbial Fermentation process works as nature intended and with great circularity because the products which are produced are “nature-like”. PHA plastics, for example, have the same performance [and better] as common thermo-plastics however when intentionally or otherwise discarded into nature PHA has no more impact on the environment than the leaves falling off the trees in Autumn or perhaps a discarded apple core. Just to recap, should a PHA product for some reason fail to be recycled it is 100% biodegradable on the land or at sea and nature will do its thing quickly.
The science of microbe soup
Microbes are suspended in a soup at anaerobic temperatures [a little north of 30 degrees celsius]and in closed fermentation tanks where the environment provides ideal conditions for rapid growth and to achieve maximum productivity. During a continuous batch delivery schedule of a Microbial Fermentation process, 130 hours is typically the ideal duration it also represents a convenient rotation for work crews on a facility with 12 tanks as they make ready and fill or empty one tank on each alternative shift.
The Microbial Fermentation tanks at ASMARA GTL made ready to produce 2G EtOH for example are lightly forced with Hydrogen Producer Gas continuously, the soup in the microbes consumes the carbon in the carbon monoxide and the carbon in the carbon dioxide to gain growth [carbon sink] and here the microbes produce ethanol with the oxygen content of the producers gas [EtOH] a surplus of hydrogen is released and recovered above the soup at the head of the fermentation tank. The recovered hydrogen has the 99.99% purity required to be compliant with Hydrogen Fuel Cells and H2 is sold as a commodity.
The ASMARA platform is a “cookie cutter” the back-end technology, the feedstock shed the technical rooms, and rail and road connections are always in the same “cookie cutter project” only the front-end technology and its final product vary. The ASMAR platform is another version of TITAN which fits in a 5ha site and one large enough to enable the manufacture of Hydrogen Producer Gas to Microbial Fermentation to achieve scale.
The ASMARA/TITAN GTL for example produces an average of 50,000 litres of 2G EtOH per day every day of the year through front-end Microbial Fermentation working 24 hours per day and seven days a week. ASMARA Microbial Fermentation Tanks also support the same Microbial Formation Process for the production of PHA products and with a selection of more than 150 naturally occurring microbes to choose from. ASMARA and TITAN platforms are forward-compatible second-generation bio-engineering facilities with the potential to produce all manner of fuels, chemicals and materials in future.
Where nature does not provide a natural microbe potentially the most similar microbe is selected and genetically tweaked so a new strain of microbes is created one that can produce all manner of things organic and better. One day soon Microbial Fermentation will start to replace all of the lesser-performing oil and gas-sourced products we use every day.
Plastics pose a greater threat to humanity today then coal
More and more environmental agencies are opening our eyes to our impending doom given our misuse of plastics and in particular our single-use plastic consumption addiction. The statement was made loud and clear, regarding the plastics we already discarded and as those plastics exfoliate over the next hundreds of years plastics will continue to threaten our standard of living, posing a threat to our health and well-being, taking us one step closer to the end of our existence.
Hydrocarbon oil and gas-derived thermo-plastics do not mimic nature their long molecules first break down into micro and nano plastics in a slow process where their final demise and extinction could take 500 to 1000 years and all the while these plastics in use, in landfill and sea fill constantly undergo an exfoliation process which is contaminating the food we eat, the water we drink and even the air we breathe.
Hydrogen Producer’s Gas process focuses on the holistic recycling of plastics
The problem with plastics is that they are not abundantly available as anyone’s waste stream since they are most commonly discarded together with other household waste products “commingled” and that means costly time-consuming sorting is always required. Single-use plastics make up a significant part of all of the household waste we throw away.
Another problematic hurdle to overcome with food and dry goods producers and sellers is that they produce packaging as “conglomerate” meaning for example they consist of any combination of paper, different plastics and cards and whilst individually all of or some of their most parts might be recyclable they are not recycled because they are stuck together and there are no commercially viable means to process their recycling.
Unfortunately, the majority of chemical recycling processes to date to improve the recycling of any given plastic has been promoted to focus on recycling a particular type of thermo-plastic to achieve a superplastic, the most superior, the chosen one and one that would be the dominating source of bottles and packaging in future. Needless to say this type of research and development sponsored by big oil and gas first favour the interest of big oil and gas with the environment as an afterthought in its attempt to dominate the plastic market.
Plastics are a big business, almost 20% of oil is converted into plastics a downstream product of oil and its lucrative petrochemical business.
ASMARA value proposition tackles recycling in a simple and holistic way.
MSW need only be processed to sort three categories at the materials recovery centre, organic, metals and minerals. As the MSW is sorted AI cherry-picks the most sortable of materials like PET bottles cardboard and other used containers which have a readily available or returnable manufactures solution to recycle.
Ask anyone in the recycling business AI is far faster, more efficient and more productive than a real person at the recovery centre. AI never gets tired or distracted and it doesn’t take breaks or holidays or turn up late to a shift.
Since Hydrogen Gas Producers cannot convert metal or minerals magnets are deployed to remove metals whilst gravity and the air is used to flush out the mineral content.
ASMARA recycles all plastics [except PVC] first converting them into Hydrogen Producer Gas later feeding it to Microbes. ASMARA also conveniently recycles all manner of other materials in the waste stream into plastics too, first converting it into Hydrogen Producers Gas and later feeding it to microbes this recycling process is wholly inclusive for all manner of waste including almost any plastic, paper, cardboard, leather, bone, wood, garden trimmings, food waste natural or manmade textiles including all of their conglomerates and of course in commingled waste streams.
Today’s waste recovery centres could be revolutionised with ASMARA since materials such as cardboard are only recyclable if they are dry and clean. ASMAR introduces a two-sort household system for the collection of MSW simply sorting between wet and dry waste the choice could not be more simple for the waste producer.
With wet waste bagged and deposited in the wheelie bin, it can be diverted to a separate process facility to produce biogas [and the solid waste from biogas can be sent back to ASMARA] whilst all dry waste streams can be loaded into any of the gurneys with no colour differentiation required and that means the system will only ever need one sorting station.
The revolution in waste sorting is inevitable since under the current system waste will never be a valuable commodity unless it is thrown away clean and dry. Producers of waste failure to cooperate can be attributed to many things however it is the high cost of waste services passed on to the waste producer that causes the most friction. Many households in Poland are not on board with sorting since they see that the waste service provider can be profitable at the expense of the waste producer.
Poland can only achieve EU MSW recovery targets if it ends all incineration
Outside of Poland’s main cities many households still burn coal and the idea of not being able to burn waste at home however being charged a fee for someone else to burn it just down the road in the name of the environment is preposterous. The not so well thought out MSW regulations in Poland deliver the lowest recovery of MSW in the EU and are just behind Romania.
ASMARA promotes the end of incineration and a problem solved requiring less sorting means fewer service costs for waste producers. As waste sorting fails through lack of community cooperation the cost of waste increases and so the waste recovery services continue to deteriorate it is an inevitable race to the bottom.
ASMARA is indifferent to wet waste and the system is very tolerant however ASMARA is primarily a dry waste solution and since it demonstrates an excellent partnership together with wet waste biogas facilities to manage all organic MSW a two sort system can be ideal in urban and suburban areas.
Introducing a two-sort system is more acceptable to the household producer firstly because it means lower service costs and ultimately because it offers a definite end-of-life solution to all waste in the system and it is the easiest to follow.
So far Poland failed to achieve the EU 50% recycling objective with ASMARA on hand 80% recycling or higher is achievable with added points for up-cycling materials
Dry waste is converted into hydrogen gas, wet waste is converted into biogas
The ideal and most executable solution for waste is the two-sort wet and dry system it translates into fewer gurneys and fewer wheelie bins and it means less space is required to store waste for collection, more frequent waste collection means better hygiene and improved sanitation because the waste collection is faster and more efficient and everyone wins.
Discarded plastic is an “almost forever material” where the worst and most harmful environmental impact will be endured by the next generations. However, on a more positive note, it will never be too late to recover it in our lifetime. The plastics in our landfills and sea fill must be recovered at some point soon the Hydrogen Producers Gas to Microbial Fermentation industry is already valued in trillions of USD and that’s before we consider a lot of very valuable land can be reclaimed and put to better purposes
Recycling all plastics into new plastics is a revolution
ASMARA was devised to solve the waste problem by recycling it into new fuels, chemicals and materials which are themselves recyclable, biodegradable and biocompatible. The recycling process in the Hydrogen Producer Gas to Microbial Fermentation is a revolution and will not take place without a showdown with big oil and gas.
Recycling and up-cycling of CO2 is not a temporary measure by any means because non-recyclable and non-recycled materials find circularity, we are removing them from our environment where they can do harm, up-cycling and reintroducing them to the supply chain as a valued added replacement and with the threat to the environment mitigated.
Recycling and up cycling plastic is carbon negative and permanent
The process of converting plastics to microbial fermentation to hydrogen producer gas is carbon negative it has a negative carbon footprint. The process offers a guaranteed end-of-life solution for the extinction of oil and gas-sourced thermo-plastics, recycling and upcycling the process is not reversible.
There are no intentional gas emissions in the conversion process since it takes place under slightly negative pressure. Even burning Hydrogen Producer’s Gas in a stationary hydrogen gas engine to achieve second-generation production status is circular. Firstly the engine jacket and exhaust heat are converted and exchanged to be supplied to the local District Heating Network [DHN] for reuse, and spare electricity capacity can be exported to the grid [CHP] secondly the content of the gas emission in the exhaust is another valuable captive source of carbon to be fed to the Microbial Fermentation Process.
Downstream Hydrogen Producer Gas to Microbial Fermentation materials are recyclable and as more or different materials are produced to meet demand [material recycling on demand] ASMARA happily recycles its products or should they be discarded for whatever reason into the environment nature will have its way with them. All PHA materials can be composted. ASMARA rolled out could be the key to profitability for many counter-parties cleaning up the reputed 5.3 billion tonnes of plastics leaching micro and nanoparticles from our landfills, our water courses and in the sea swirls and sea fill.
Today plastic is polluting our air, our water and the food we eat plastic particles are raining down on us and affecting every inch of our planet.
The petrochemical side of the oil and gas industry has to be held responsible for the damage already done to our planet at least it is time to tax the future growth of thermo-plastics derived from oil. Contrary to society’s wish in reducing the dependency on oil the petrochemical industry continues to ramp up. Today oil is unpopular so it eyes up the opportunity of developing new plastic production plants for yet more single-use plastics hell-bent on filing our waste supply chain with even more “almost forever plastics.
As some of us at least focus on the cleaning up of plastics pollution and at what probably will only amount to being a snail’s pace under the radar of big oil and gas yet more plastics are produced so we must prepare first to endure the impact of a massive increase in plastic pollution.
In the commercial handling and process of waste, ASMARA is a revolution MSW is actually a resource mismanaged at the cost of the consumer. New fuels, chemicals, and materials including plastics derived from waste using Hydrogen Producer Gas and Microbial Fermentation in unison could one day reverse the trend of gate fees. For sure nature-like materials end landfill as we know them because the material will decompose improving the soil around it and within seven weeks if discarded in ideal conditions
Nature like materials are produced from recycling non nature like materials for fuel solutions.
Microbial Fermentation produces ethanol a natural alcohol which can be blended with the motor fuels we use today and in the vehicles we drive today.
These vehicles include almost all petrol and diesel vehicles manufactured since the end of the last century. In the meantime, the alcohol-to-jet [AtJ] pathway has been developed by an emerging bio-industry which can convert ASMARA or TITAN 2G EtOH into Sustainable Aircraft Fuel [SAF]. SAF not only looks like the most promising pathway to decarbonise the aircraft industry achieving 60% decarbonisation with existing aircraft it is already in use and is about to become mandatory everywhere.
SAF derived from 2G EtOH delivers good compression results slightly better than 2:1 other benefits are that it is a Drop-in fuel so the SAF tanker can fill the aircraft tank on the apron without the need for any other equipment or facility.
Benefits to the users of motor vehicles and those dependent on the aircraft industry start with CO2 and other greenhouse gas emission savings in the refinery processes footprint. Meanwhile if Hydrogen Producer Gas to Microbial Fermentation has really got one thing going for it it is the fact that it is carbon positive. TITAN 2G EtOH title is derived from the fact that no fossil fuels energy [like black electricity] can be used in the supply chain and 2G EtOH is entirely sourced from renewable biomass which is waste outside of the food chain. CO2 savings go beyond the use of the fuel and its refinery as more savings result as no CO2 is embedded in exploration. The exploitation and the conversion of oil at the refinery or in other downstream processes have extensive footprints long before those hydrocarbon fuels even reach the sales pump.
ASMARA cannot claim the title of 2G EtOH because plastics and other organic waste steams derived from oil and gas are not considered “renewable”. ASMARA however deserves a higher classification out on its own since as well as being carbon positive Hydrogen Producer Gas to Microbial Fermentation technologies might just be the saviour of humanity itself.
Nature-like chemicals derived from Hydrogen Producers Gas to Microbial Fermentation can replace many resources derived from oil and gas in a better process without a negative impact on the environment including ethanol, ammonia, acetone and ascetic acids for fertilisers, perfumes, household cleaners, paint, preservation and water tightness applications, adhesives and personal hygiene products.
Nature-like materials derived from Hydrogen Producers Gas to Microbial Fermentation include all types of plastics, films, extrusions, and moulded components. They are more than safe for household and clinical use PHA plastics are so biocompatible that they are used in extreme surgery and operations concerning the reconstruction of tissues PHA will play an important part in the future of bionics including the replacement and manufacture of prosthetic organs and limbs.
PHA is the key development alternative for the production of new improved rubber replacement materials for tires for road vehicles an alternative automotive rubber plastic and filler product upcycled through the recycling and extinction of tires. Every year we discard some 1 Billion tires and replace them with new tires which have no end-of-life solution. New better more recyclable rubber alternatives have already been developed on the back of Hydrogen Producer Gas to Microbial Fermentation technology and cleaning up the many Billions of used car tires already in landfill and sea fill would be the ideal feedstock to kick start the process.
Collagen looks like leather, smells like leather and wears like leather its not leather but it is the material leather is made of.
Finally, materials which are PHA-derived collagen can replace organic components of mammals like leather, bone and muscle tissue which can be reproduced and ramped up recycling and up cycling waste through Hydrogen Producer Gas to Microbial Fermentation for use in the apparel and shoe industry as well as the automotive, furniture and other industries.
Alt PHA collagen recycled from waste means no more animals have to be slaughtered to deliver the feel, quality and performance of the leather items we demand and desire. Collagen looks like leather, wears like leather, and even smells like leather because technically it is leather.