By Marc Bacon, P. Eng., Chief Technology Officer, Omni Conversion Technologies
A Sustainable Future for Waste
With landfill space dwindling, environmental regulations tightening, and demand for low-carbon energy rising, OMNI’s technology presents a transformative solution. By turning waste into value, OMNI enables cities, industries, and energy producers to close the loop on waste management and advance the circular economy.
The world relies heavily on syngas (a mix of CO, H2, and CH4) to produce fuels, chemicals, and power, as illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1 – Syngas and its uses
Traditionally, syngas is derived from methane, coal, and biomass, but municipal solid waste (MSW) and other heterogeneous wastes present a unique and underutilized opportunity.
Gasification: A Solution to Three Major Challenges
Gasifying MSW and other complex waste streams offers three critical benefits:
1. Landfill Diversion Reducing waste accumulation and extending landfill life.
2. Methane AvoidancePreventing landfill gas emissions, a potent greenhouse gas.
3. Reliable Feedstock SupplyCreating a bankable, abundant fuel source. Unlike biomass, which is in high demand and increasing in price, MSW is plentiful and growing at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 7%, so commands a tipping fee.
The combination of abundant feedstock, being paid to take it, and being paid to sell the product has led several firms to try to convert MSW to syngas. A successful MSW to syngas technology will always generate more revenues than paying for biomass as a feedstock.
Despite these advantages, MSW gasification has historically faced significant hurdles. Many attempts to adapt conventional fluidized-bed and entrained-flow gasifiers to handle MSW have failed due to low availability, excessive feedstock preprocessing costs, tar and heavy metal-laden chars, sticky ash agglomeration, and high operational expenses. Scaling up from pilot to full commercial scale—sometimes by as much as 125 times—has also proven unmanageable for many technologies. As a result, spectacular failures have resulted in over $2B USD of loss to investors from failed projects in the past decade. Like the Holy Grail, many view MSW as impossible to gasify reliably and economically.
OMNI’s Breakthrough in MSW Gasification
OMNI Conversion Technologies has solved these challenges through nearly $500 million USD in investment, 1.5 million person-hours of development, and two decades of rigorous testing and demonstration. The result: the first and only commercial-scale technology capable of converting minimally prepared MSW into pristine syngas, with 100% landfill diversion and no direct emissions during processing.
OMNI’s modular systems are designed for high efficiency and reliability, offering capacities of 200, 300, 400, or 600 tonnes per day (tpd). With over 90% availability and high cold gas efficiency, OMNI’s technology requires minimal feedstock preparation, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 – The OMNI Difference = Able to accept variable, poorly prepared waste
The OMNI Difference
Unlike incineration or other gasification approaches, OMNI’s proven Technology Readiness Level (TRL 8) solution achieves superior performance across multiple key metrics:
• Lower Cost – More economical than incineration with fewer permitting hurdles, while accepting difficult wastes with minimal preparation.
• High Efficiency – Converts MSW into valuable syngas, enabling the production of fuels and chemicals.
• Reduced Carbon Intensity (CI) – Avoiding methane from landfills can result in a negative CI score. For further reduction, CO2 in the syngas stream can be removed easily for carbon capture and sequestration.
• Full diversion from landfills – Produces only syngas, water recovered from the waste, and a nonleachable aggregate that traps heavy metals.
• Scalability and Reliability – Proven at commercial scale and currently advancing toward Final Investment Decision (FID) on multiple projects within the next year.
Unlike traditional waste-to-energy incinerators, which are limited to heat and power generation, OMNI’s syngas can be refined into high-value fuels, chemicals, hydrogen, and synthetic natural gas—providing greater economic and environmental benefits.
For more information, visit OMNI’s website at www.omnict.com.
Originally published in IGNITE V10.
