Up without smoke: the Foreclosed House Gasifier

In what is becoming a yearly tradition, I once again submitted various proposals to the St. Andrews Prize for the Environment, and once again none made it past the first round. Here is an idea I call the House Gasifier:

Up without smoke: the Foreclosed House Gasifier

Blighted neighborhoods have long been plagued with vacant houses, and given the mortgage foreclosure crisis of the past years, abandoned homes are popping up even in traditionally middle-class areas. Some will eventually be resold, but most are condemned to remain unoccupied indefinitely. Abandoned houses look ugly, lower property values of surrounding homes, and serve as a den for wild and stray animals, crime ranging from prostitution and drug sales, and a target for arson.

Many houses that have been definitively abandoned are subject to asset stripping, in which the valuable components of the building (copper pipes and wires, steel structural members, and high-end countertops) are taken out and resold. While this is often illegal, it is a positive development in terms of environmental sustainability and extracting value from an otherwise frozen asset.

However, much of the construction elements of modern houses do not have resale value. Vinyl siding, asphalt shingles, drywall, and dimensional lumber are not easy to reuse. They are easily damaged by removal, and their base components do not have enough intrinsic value to justify breakdown and recycling.

The Foreclosed House Gasifier (FHG) project proposes a solution to the scourge of abandoned houses in the US, which would also reduce importation of fossil fuels for winter heating. The house gasifier combines a household-sized high-temperature gasifier, furnace, electrical generator, and a versatile chopping unit. This way neighbors that are sick of abandoned, unclaimed houses can gradually rip them down themselves. The construction debris (shingles, siding, lumber, etc.) is then loaded into the chopper and used throughout the winter in each neighbor's personal FHG unit, for household heating and electrical generation. The FHG also works with natural gas or gas oil, household waste such as paper or plastic, and wood resulting from landscape pruning, tree removal, or scavenging the forest floor for fallen limbs. This versatility is very important in the new recession-era landscape of the US, in which many municipalities are cutting down on garbage collection, foreclosed houses are the site of rampant bush and tree regrowth, and the unemployed are rediscovering skills of searching the manmade and natural environments to meet vital needs.

The design of the gasifier assures that fuel is burned cleanly. Even the toxic fumes emitted from burning vinyl or plastic waste are further combusted into harmless carbon dioxide and water.

The FHG would replace or complement the existing household furnace, plugging into the heating systems and chimney of the house, as well as the electric meter, which runs in reverse when the FHG is functioning.

The Foreclosed House Gasifier would thus get rid of ugly, unliveable houses, decrease arson and other crimes, eliminate havens for dangerous stray animals, and even lower toxic mold levels. It would make it possible to reclaim lots that were eyesores, for other uses that contribute to neighborhood development (gardens, businesses, parks, parking lots), and would decrease household environmental impact by reducing fossil fuel consumption (for heat and electricity) and landfill use.