Plasma & Plasma Torches

Plasma, often referred to as the "fourth state of matter" is a special form of ionized gas that conducts electricity. It exists in the "white glow" that surrounds lightening bolts and is the major component in stars, including the sun. Although plasmas can be generated in a wide range of temperatures reaching millions of degrees (e.g. for fusion reactors), typical industrial uses of thermal plasmas are at temperatures in the range of 5,000-10,000°C (9,000-18,000°F).

Thermal Plasma heating technologies were widely developed in the early 1960's in conjunction with space exploration and military applications programs in the US (NASA) and the former Soviet Union. In particular, plasma torches were developed to provide an effective method to test the effectiveness and durability of heat shields required for space vehicle re-entry. A plasma torch is a device that converts electrical energy into thermal energy. Plasma torches generate controlled plasma "fields" when a steady flow of gas is forced between electrodes with a high electrical current flowing between these electrodes. This now ionized gas generates an intense heat in the form of an arc column or "plume" .

Plasma torches create an ultra-high energy environment where the energy density is greater than the bonding energy between the elemental atoms that form molecules. When the molecules that form the waste are fed into the plasma field, the molecules are dissociated into their basic elemental atomic constituents. This dissociation permanently and totally destroys the molecular compounds and their properties